As. and driving

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does anyone else with Asperger's have trouble operating motor vehicles? or is it just me?

And by trouble I mean 'Hyper-Anxiety'. holding the Steering wheel in a death grip, focusing on one area that you forget the others, (if your concentrating on going the right speed and making good turns, your not watching the signs and the other cars, and if your watching the cars and the signs you can't tell how fast your going.) and not being able to judge distance properly (be it measuring the distance for the 'Two-second rule', or just parking on the side of the road and either having 1 or 2 wheels on the curb, or have a good foot/foot and a half of space between the curb and your car.)

its been well documented that i cannot drive. (and believe me i've tried and want to) but my hand eye coordination and reaction time suck. bigtime. if i want to go anywhere i have my mom or sister take me, or i use public transportation/ most of the times i walk. because then that way i can day dream along the way. moving in general for me magnifiys my ability to get into a deep day dream

I did not learn how to drive till I was 34. I drove about one year with no permit
maybe 5000 miles. Crashed on a dirt road doing Redneck stuff. Quit my job the same
day. Drove very little after, gave my truck to family. In the past I thought it was just
"fear of driving". But I physically could not do it. I had no feel for the foot pedels.
My sister said "Oh you must wear shoes it the law". When I was 34 I learned to drive
mostily on my own (with no shoes at first). I drove less than 1 mile in the last 8 months.

I'm 21, and I'm currently working on getting my driver's license. I do indeed have trouble focusing on all the different elements of driving all at once, but generally I think I'm doing okay. My test is on August 11th - I think I have a pretty good chance of passing.

I'm 17 and I could have gotten my license three years ago. I took the written test, but didn't pass. Will take it again soon.

Actually, I have driven before, and my reaction time isn't all that bad. Could it be better? Oh yeah! I still have a lot of work and practice to do. But I think I will turn out to be a fine driver.

I can drive. That is to say, I am legally allowed to drive because I passed my test. Which means there is something horribly wrong with the test.

As you might have guessed, I don't think I am a particularly good driver. Aspergers doesn't help, because driving involves alot more social perception that I thought it would. Like when you are at a roundabout and it could be anyones turn to go, so the rules break down and your supposed to look at the other drivers and decide if you can go. Nearly hit someone because of that, apparently I was giving "its ok, you go first" signals....

Another problem caused by Aspergers is the lack of co-ordination. I have difficultly doing the pedals. This is made worse by having large feet, and being tall. The seat doesn't go back far enough, and my feet are too big. I remember the first time I tried to drive in my trainers, I couldn't press individual pedals, now I stick to my other shoes.

Oh, and then there is lack of awareness of the other vehicles...

And lack of awareness of your own vehicle....

The list goes on. I probably shouldn't drive. Well maybe not until I get some more driving experience..... dammit!

Oh another thing I noted was most people use only one leg to control both the
brake and gas pedals. I needed to use my left for brake and right for gas.

Are you driving an automatic then?

If yes, then count yourself lucky that you don't have to deal with the clutch. I find that the most difficult pedal.

I bought my first car for $200 it was a standard. Needless to say I never learned
to drive it. I found it very hard to keep it from dieing when working the pedals.
Later I found the clutch was wore done to nothing. The feel of a clutch varies from
car to car and with wear on it. Yes I can only drive an automatic.

I want to drive but I get all confused with the road rules (where each car is allowed to drive etc) therefore havent passed the learners test. Maybe one day i will who knows.

I didn't learn to drive until I was 30. I found it very stressful.

Part of it was multitasking difficulty, part less than average physical coordination, and part trouble finding the right level of thinking (Getting excessively interested in one detail is not a good idea!)

Another problem was finding an instructor who did teaching in a style that communicated with me.

Having done that, I've driven for years, in a number of countries, on both sides of the road (1 per country). Because of reflexes, I still wouldn't rate myself a brilliant driver, but sheer repetition has progammed in good techniques. And I recently had to have my front disc brakes changed (after 13 years) because I don't use them enough: I read the road much further ahead than the average. It gives me more time.

thats what confused me, i tried using two feet and got the controls backwards then i panic ed and let both feet up untill the car stopped. what an absolute nitemare! thank goodness i was on a dirt road. otherwise i would have crashed

I found learning to drive very easy, as a child I would pay lots of interest in how my dad would drive a car, when I was about 8 he would let me move the gear lever for him, I have always been interested in cars, trains, engines, etc, so maybe this had something to due with why I found driving so easy.
I don't like driving much now, it is not because I can't operate the car, but I don't like other people who drive as they do not follow the rules, the thing I hate most is roundabouts that have 2 lanes that you can use to go straight ahead and then when you leave the roundabout the 2 lanes merge into one.
Also where I live in the UK we have speed cameras on the roads that lead in and out of towns and cities, these roads have 30 or 40 mph limits on them, if you keep to the limit other cars will often drive about 2 feet behind your car, and if to drive above the speed limit you are at risk of getting a speeding fine.
I think that aspies would be good at designing road layouts and making traffic laws, there would be lots fewer accidents.
Simon

I have trouble operating anything, let alone a car. I think this is actually pretty normal, a lot of aspies I have talked to have trouble driving.

After reading a couple of your responses, I don't feel all that bad about being 17 and not having my license... it still feels like there is a lot of time left for me.

Yeah I had a beginner license at 17 (just a written test). My sister and father tried to
teach me to drive but they were very bad teachers. My brother tried to teach me more
than ounce at 13 but it was impossible (I even had a slow speed crash in a pile of dirt).
Later in my 20's my brother was teaching me again . I felt very calm with his teaching
style (he is a criminal with no concern for the rules). He did not get all crazy if I made
a misstake. My sister said words like "you could have killed somebody". Oh something
strange happen that day my brother was teaching me. My father came running screaming at me because I drove a car a round a block twice. My father and others
were hazing me to drive it around the block. My brother in a rare moment of greatness
got me to drive the car(even though I had fear). So 10 years later I learned on my own. I drove with one of my coworkers oneday and that was it.