Getting your license is supposedly simple with Afsim, a simulator which teaches hopefuls the basics of driving. Would you recommend it?

The Afsim driving simulator is much like that of the computer/video game Flight Simulator, where you ‘learn’ how to fly an aeroplane, except that it equips learner drivers with a realistic experience to help them develop the skills needed when driving an actual car.

Perplexed? So am I.

Joubert Smith, GM at Afsim, says that the idea is not only to teach learners to pass their license test, but to also contribute towards improved quality of driving in South Africa by establishing competence under all possible driving scenarios. This is, of course, assuming that a virtual scenario is realistic enough to replicate the authentic situation.

How Afsim works
The 12-module training is based on the infamous K53 technique which includes gear changing, clutch control, incline starts, parallel parking, driving in traffic, at night as well as in bad weather. Smith also adds that it’s easy to learn all of this in a relaxed, controlled and safe environment, under direct facilitation of qualified virtual facilitators.

And that’s not all.

The simulator is also equipped with a right hand drivers unit, seat belt, earphones, steering wheel, indicator and windscreen wiper controls, a five-speed manual gearbox, a clutch plate as well as earphones and a 32 inch LCD screen for the rearview mirror.

*I’m a driver, with a license, and I don’t see how this can work.

Do you?

By: Meagan Karstens