Driving

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I am wondering if anyone has the same problems I do with driving. I have not sought diagnosis for Aspergers but have autistic family members and believe myself to have Aspergers. I'm 27 and I started trying to drive at 18. It didn't go very well and I just started back in July. Right now I can drive 4 places, back and forth. I use a gps. I can only focus on what is directly in front of me and not having an accident, so I need it to tell me where to go. Does that make sense? Roads look the same to me and it is very hard to not stare at or get distracted by the lights of other cars. I stay very rigid and grip the wheel and try not to let everything overwhelm me. I can go to the same place over and over and never know how to get there and I can not be given directions by someone else. If something happens and I have to change my route, I panic and can't work it out. Does anyone else have these problems with driving and do you still drive?

I think whether or not autism enhances, dampens, or does anything at all to your ability to drive varies from person to person.

If your not comfortable driving you shouldn't.

People aren't taught the danger factor in driving.

It's one of those nt things, where people refuse to acknowledge the very high risk of getting in a car accident.

I refuse to drive, I got back injuries, and of course I can barely afford to eat, so buying a car ain't on the list.

Anyways people in my family, atleast my dads side of the family are very very good drivers. It's one of the visual spatial thinking things. I love it, but objectively it's a plague on society.

I immediately relate to that. Been having lessons since I was 17. I'm 30 now and have had to just give up on it. I found it the most stressful thing. Between trouble judging spatial stuff, multitasking in realtime, predicting pedestrians and vehicles, trying to process conversation between myself and the instructor and keeping my eyes on every detail all the time...I finished lessons in a cold sweat. Much as it pains me to admit it, I would probably not be safe to drive so finally gave up.

There certainly are plenty of aspies who have no problems in this area. Still waiting on formal diagnosis but once I learned about AS it made sense of a lot including these problems.

I have no problem in this area - as a kid I sat with a map wherever we went by car. By 10 I could describe which roads connected any two major towns in the UK, and I obsessed about all the elements of driving and cars and vehicles.

When I took my test I passed first time, and with the best score that my driving instructor had ever had of a student.

I don't understand why people need GPS, I drove to Hungary and back from the UK and printed out about 10 important junctions along the way and that was it. I joke to myself that any car I see in a ditch was using GPS.

But it is an interesting issue - how do you 'map' things (albeit with difficulty as you mentioned in your post)?

There are two types - the stereotypically female approach is to try to remember and render individual buildings and unique landmarks.

The stereotypically male approach is to literally see the map from above whilst one is driving around on it. It is the shape of the roads, the shape of the junctions, an ability to tell if a road has doubled-back on itself or not, the ability to just know what sort of direction north is, that is different.

I had a very interesting conversation with a friend about this and she couldn't conceive of what I was saying - she says when she looks at a map she tries to imagine what she would see - buildings and suchlike, if she were at a place on the map looking in a certain direction, and hope this would help. But to me that won't work because whatever is imagined is imagined. The reality will have different buildings and look completely different. But the shape of the road won't be different to the map, it will be precisely the same (or it isn't a map)!

Of course there is nothing to prevent anyone of either sex having either of the stereotypical ways of looking at it....and I'm sure there are a few others.

I have had my liscense for almost a year now. I also hardly ever let go of the steering wheel. I don't really wave to people when they let me over. I can drive to multiple places but do not often go to places outside of my routine.

I tried it, was afraid of it, and never went back. The prospect frightens me. I am 27.

I ride my bicycle instead, which initially i was also afraid of, but have come to love. It's great for fitness, and i can go anywhere a car can take me.

It really sounds like you shouldn't be driving. I hate to say it.

Not knowing you, I can't really make a good observation of what might be going on, but I think I see maybe two different things to work on:

You don't sound fearful about controlling the car, so it sounds like maybe you are OK with that? In a way, "focusing in front of you" might be part of the problem. Some people have a harder time to focus on several things at the same time, and that's kind of important in driving. It's always something that can be worked on though. With experience, you just "know and feel" what's around you, and your mind is out ahead of the car. When there's a surprise; a rock sitting in your lane, or a car suddenly pops out in front of you, the key is to focus your eyes EXACTLY and ONLY on where you want the car to go to avoid the object. Try this experiment while walking: Put something on the floor and go back away from it as far as you can get, then try to run past it (around it; not jump over it) while focusing on it... Now back up and do the same thing, but this time, focus your eyes on the floor to the left or the right of the object, and don't look AT the object. Now, think: The first time, did you suddenly jerk to the side to try to get around the object at the last minute, and maybe almost trip? On the second time, did you somehow just swerve around it without thinking about changing direction for a second?

I'm not sure what that's called, but it's a human instinct to move toward whatever your eyes focus on, and it works in walking, driving, and in my case I've found it to be the most valuable safety skill on motorcycles. It is also how a baseball player hits the ball every time, but it is the reverse (want to hit the ball vs. avoid it). Someplace safe, you can try it in a car, by driving on a straight line, and focusing for a second on an object off to the side. You will almost uncontrollably let the car drift over in the direction you were focused on.

If your concern is not getting lost or too far away by mistake, that's of course a whole different issue, and I don't know how best to advise on that. My wife also uses GPS to go places, and she has always disliked maps and says she has a very hard time reading them. And she has an advanced degree in computer sciences, so it's not that she can't understand distance and direction. Some people just aren't "map people". I'm lucky that I have a "GPS in my head", which makes me able to just know where I am, and which direction everything is, somehow. I would imagine that the fear of the GPS failing, of something else coming up that would leave you in the middle of someplace you had no clue where, it would ruin the whole driving experience. One thing is for sure: Anything can be worked on and made better.

Charles

Thank you very much, Charles. that was very helpful.

Driving is pretty straight forward where I live. I don't have any issues aside from being a little distracted sometimes.

I really don't like driving either, even just being in the car can be too much sometimes. My dad loves driving and is trying to teach me but I always get so overwhelmed by everything passing by. There are cars, light posts, grass, buildings, debris on the road, people next to the road. Sometimes I have to do a 'shut down' or turn on the radio and focus in on that in the car just to not go crazy. So naturally I don't drive often because shutting down would be a bad idea.

I love driving. The best drivers are Finnish. They take it very seriously and do skid pan work and start learning to drive years before passing a test.

The most important thing is to be aware not anxious on the roads. Your peripheral vision is very important and as charles says, if you are looking at a pole trying to avoid it in a crash - you will likely hit it. Look at the space you want to occupy. But hopefully you never get in a tangle anyway.

I drive an automatic car..but use my sat nav a lot..although my sense of direction is very good i would hate to get lost so always plan a journey before i leave to not get so stressed