Driving Aspies/Others on Spectrum

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not officially diagnosed yet but probably on the spectrum

and yes I got my drivers license when I was 20

it took me 2 years and countless lessons

I am a safe driver, I am a bit clumsy (parking and special stuff ) but I can concentrate on driving and I don't take risks

yep I have far more experience with stick-clutches that made it harder to learn to drive because I couldn't handle the clutch and steer at the same time

Okay, for me it was easier to learn to drive with a stick-clutch since I had the feeling I was more in control of the vehicle that way.

I have done a few lessons with automatic transmission (as was policy for no hopers ) and it was easier for me than clutch stick but I went back to clutch stick because most cars had that but it took me months to be able to shift gear and stay on the right course

I drive. I like driving.

For me the problem with driving is all the things which have to be done to buy, service, insure, tax, inspect and fuel the car, all of which require interaction and some of which can involve unscripted interaction (at which I'm terrible) and long-term planning (at which I'm not good, though I'm not sure I want to lay that blame on AS.)

Yes, it is true. It started around 30 years ago, I would guess. I do prefer manual transmission myself, even though I am slightly rusty driving one now. When I get my own car soon, I plan to find a manual one. I like to have more control of the vehicle and it's a lot more fun that way driving a manual than automatic.

Funny story (NOT!) on learning how to drive manual for the first time. My mom had a '91 Volkswagen Jetta, and I was 17 at the time when I got into the driving part of the driver's education class at my school. (I failed the first class, only kid to do so in the school's history, didn't do homework!) Anyway, I asked her to teach me how to drive stick, and she told me she would let me try, in a small street within our subdivision, in a lot where townhomes have yet to be built. When we got to that street and we switched seats, she came off as expecting me to know everything (read her mind) on how to drive a stickshift, and told me to do it myself. At that point anyway I wanted to be independent, I didn't want to have to rely on her try to tell (yell) me what to do anymore, so I got myself working on the 1st gear, failing every time to get the car moving by stalling it. She got madder at me every time I stalled the car. I got even more nervous than I was at first and was close to meltdown/shutdown from having to deal with her yelling at me. She forced me to "stop trying to break her car" and gave me a hard time for a few days about it. A few days later, I asked my next-door neighbor if she could teach me how to drive stickshift. It didn't take me more than the first try to get the hang of it. I drove her car more than my mom's afterwards, until I got my first car, which was an automatic.

I LOVE driving, it's my favorite thing to do. Especially driving without a destination in mind is quite fun to me. I have been in 3 accidents, unfortunately. The 3rd one got me scarred for life, made me into a ultra-defensive driver - meaning I turned into a much better driver. I started driving at 17 in Spring 1998, first car on Christmas '98 and the major accident (last one) was 2000. I have had 2 speeding tickets, 2 warnings. Last time I had one was in 2006. One ticket AND one warning within one week of each other, D'OH! (48 in 40 near home, it was downhill (ticket) and 60 in 50 (warning)). The longest driving I have ever done was from Arkansas to Alaska, switching seats with my (at the time) wife several times, but I drove most of the way - it was a 4,300 mile trip. I would say I drove about 3000 miles, ended up having my body shut down on me as we left Palmer, AK heading to Anchorage (40 miles to go) due to sheer exhaustion which I didn't realize at the time.

If there was ever a Bejesus in me, then it got scared out the two times I had the wheel of a car.

I ride a pedal cycle and I used to ride a motorcycle, but four-wheelers are just so out-of-control-and-going-to-kill-someone scary that I have never tried again - despite a lot of pressure over many years to learn.

I drive, I love it. I was told I was a natural driver by my instructor (I didn't have a special driving instructor or anything, just a normal NT guy who didn't know I was Aspie.)

I was the only one in my entire school year that got my driver's lisence the first time without even trying. I knew one NT girl who had to go 12 times before she got her lisence.

I'm only 15, so I don't have a license yet, but I've driven quite a bit on private roads in both manual and automatic cars. I love driving and am quite good at it. I'm already saving for a car for when I'm 17

12 times? O.o Wow, did she go for an AT lisence in the end?

I passed my driving test the first time as well. People told me: "You're so cool about everything, you won't let yourself be distracted, so you'll make it." How could they say this? During the whole of the test I was having this internal freakout, and a week later I was still paralized!

She kept on failing because she kept on recklessly driving during the test. Once she realised she was doing that, she stopped it and got her lisence. I never went near her when she was driving after she got it, because of that.

The only part that made me nervous was the reverse parking. I refuse to do it to this day.

I can, and do drive. I don't like it, but I have no choice, because I live in a rural area. I won't drive in heavy traffic areas, though. My mind gets overloaded, and it's too difficult for me. I also have an extreme tendency to get lost. Not in a normal way of getting lost, like my brain doesn't record any visual information about where I've been unless it's something that I see everyday kind of lost. You could drive me somewhere that I've been to hundreds of times before expecting me drive myself home, and 9 times of 10 I couldn't do it. My husband has gotten me GPS so that has helped with that issue. I'm still extremely limited to where I can safely go due to getting visually overstimulated.

I hate GPS, my driving instructor tried it on me, but I'm not that good in assessing distance, so when I pass a sideroad, the thing says 'go left' and I just look to the left and thing 'damn, that's my turn'.

I'll second not being able to stand GPS.

As a kid I read street directories and measured how long the roads were for fun. Until my family over in Sydney decided it wasn't healthy for a girl to do that and gave them away...

I'm fortunate to live in a town ringed by mountains so when I get lost, I aim for the nearest mountain and keep driving in that general direction until I get there. Once I drive a little way up the mountain, I can look back and see the big hill by the university with four Grecian columns on top of it. That's my landmark because I live two blocks from it and know that area. I then drive straight toward the columns as much as possible until I get to familiar territory.

I need those kinds of landmarks because I'm not one of those autistics who always knows where North is and I can't always tell by the sun, either. When I lived in Chicago, people used to get a kick out of asking me "where's the lake?" because no matter where we were, I'd confidently point toward the lake and everyone would giggle because I was, once again, pointing in the opposite direction. I required a map to get around Chicago and I also had to go at least one block before I could figure out which way to hold the map because I needed two points of reference to locate myself. If I just started from the intersection I was at, there was a 50% chance I'd assume the wrong direction on the map relative to where I was in real space.

Where I live now is MUCH smaller (I can bicycle from one side of town to the other in about an hour) and I just look things up on Mapquest before I go someplace new. But if I'm going to regular places, I'm okay because I can always head for a mountain, find my way back home, and then start out again. (Which I sometimes need to do because even though I know how to get from home to the post office and from home to the grocery, I can easily get lost if I try to go to the post office and then the grocery without going home in between.)

I started at 18 with a learner's permit, and than got my Driver's liscense at 19. I've been driving ever since, although I tend to avoid going on highways or freeways at any cost. * don't ask me why* I've a particular radio station turned on which helps a little.