Is being able to drive well, a sign that....

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Is it a sign that your aspergers is not to severe and that you can function decently in life?

No. It just means you can drive. It's only one possible skill among dozens that can be affected. I know people who can drive but wear diapers and starve if nobody gets them food. It all depends on the person. (I don't think "severity" can be measured in a linear way anyway.)

I've never had a speeding ticket or moving violation in 35 years of driving. Partly luck, I suppose. I consider myself an adequate driver.

But I am definitely lacking in other life skills.

I don't think it means anything specific like that.

I can drive, and have for about 25 years, now. Speaking and driving at the same time OTOH, has become, with time, a condition which is "incompatible with (continuing) life." So, being able to do one thing doesn't necessarily mean a lot about doing other things.

Maybe it is a sign that you can be independent in some areas, if that's what you are asking. You have to be independent to drive. You also can't have sensory issues that limit you operating a motor vehicle. You need a fair amount of coordination, too. It indicates a good level of overall functioning, imo, to pass the driving test and obtain a driver's license.

That and knowing the social aspects of driving. Merging changing lanes. I could never understand rush time traffic until recently.

No.

I can drive well, but I have severe anxiety and get worried that I'm holding up traffic, what if I need to change lanes and there is no gap in the traffic etc. Never had an accident, but I really hate driving, unless it involves quiet country roads.

But being a perfectionist, I know the road rules, obey them all, and am very careful.

I think I could easily learn to drive. I know all the rules of the road, how the car works and what to do if the car needs petrol/diesel or whatever. Ask me to go into a shop and ask an assistant to help me though and... I can't do it... I also need constant prompting to look after myself and to clean up. Basically in many ways I am rather mid/low functioning, but others high or VERY high...

As anbuend said, I don't think there is an easy way to measure severity levels with autism. One skill can be higher functioning than another.

I'm great at navigating country roads, but when I'm driving in a city or on a crowded stretch of highway, the speed at which I must make decisions and navigate creates anxiety and makes my brain shut down.

Well, it's a sign that you're probably pretty good with visual-spatial stuff and information processing. Those are the big things that go into driving. But there's lots of other unrelated skills, so being able to drive really doesn't have any kind of global significance.

It probably does have some correlation with how disabled you're perceived to be, though. Even if you can drive, if people stereotype you as low-functioning, then you might never be allowed to learn.

Driving well, in a city, DOES require having some control over your emotions, being able to move reliably, having at least moderately decent coordination, the ability to do a couple things at once, visual spatial skills, etc... So it MIGHT be a fair indication of level.

You have to realize that merely knowing how to drive a car doesn't cut it in the city.

From everything I've read, Aspies may be safer and higher-skilled drivers than NT's. Some of the factors may include that Aspies tend not to be competitive or aggressive, and are often scientific-minded. Thus, we may have an easier time avoiding tickets or accidents resulting from aggressive driving habits, and we may be able to visualize the physics of our vehicle better, and be able to predict how it will behave in certain emergencies. Case in point; you approach a green light, but you see a car coming too fast on the cross street to stop, and you know that you must evade. There needs to be an instant decision made on your part: Slow, or speed up, or veer right or left, and to compound that, you may need to predict any and all evasive action that the errant other driver may attempt, and you must evade his potential conflicting evasion attempt. Lots of math and physics there, and VERY little time! As an Aspie, somehow this could be a little easier, at least for me.

Charles

Autistic people tend not to be aggressive? I never heard of that. I mean, I don't think we're any more aggressive than usual, but... yeah, I never heard we're less.

The second autistic driver I ever rode with used to deliberately threaten my life when he got mad at me. He would swerve the car so that my side of a car almost hit something at fast speeds, and then swerve away at the last second. That was his method of controlling me while I was in his car. I wouldn't generalize this to all autistic people, but he was not some kind of paragon of emotionless objectivity in driving or something.

I think I'm in Kruger's position. I wonder how mild my condition is and whether I am high functioning because I can drive. Then again it took me a full year of weekly driving lessons and cost my parents a fortune to pass. I feel kind of guilty about that.

From what I have read and experienced as an Aspie myself, Asperger's and High-Functioning Autistic people tend to avoid conflict rather than to create it, and will avoid a fight at almost any cost. Also speaking for myself and several other Aspies personally known, there is very little urge to be competitive (i.e. to be the faster driver, or to show off your horsepower, etc etc). Of course there are exceptions to this, I'm sure...

Regarding that person with whom you rode, and who threatened your life & wellbeing, that's not an Autistic trait, but a sociopathic trait. I don't know him, so I have no idea what his deal is, but I'd guess there are other issues in addition to Autism there... He should not have a license!


Charles

It took me a long time to get my license, but that was mainly because I could not get lessons regularly (having never got my license in high school).

I am more defensive than most other drivers. At an yellow light, for example, I will step on the brake if I have the space to, while others will put their foot on the gas instead.
If I'm in the wrong lane to make a turn, I will simply continue going straight and either make a U-turn or find an alternate route instead of cutting across three lanes of traffic.
In addition, I always use my turn signals, let people in, stay at or below the speed limit if traffic permits me to, etc.