Can object blindness interfere with driving?

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Joe90
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22 Nov 2011, 9:35 am

I've discovered that I have object blindness - quite severely to the point where it becomes embarrassing for me, and I'm not sure if it's because I lack confidence in doing physical tasks when watched, or if it's just an awkward trait I have what I will never get rid of.

I have passed my driving test, so I can't do too badly with driving, but sometimes I worry about it because I haven't been in a car by myself yet and what if my object blindness becomes a hazard for me and other vehicles on the road? In my driving lessons I used to worry about joining motorways because it involves a lot of ''mirror work'', and due to my Dyspraxia I have trouble with judging directions and distances, and so I had major trouble when looking in my side mirror to see if the cars behind (who were already on the mitorway) were far behind enough to allow me to gently pull onto the motorway safely. But each time I looked in my side mirror, my brain didn't seem to register properly what was coming up behind me, and so I needed to take a longer look in the side mirror but when I did I wasn't then concentrating on the road ahead of me, and I nearly ran into a car that was in front of me.....

I'm not sure if it is stupidity or object blindness but I'm worrying because if I do get a car and start driving about there might become a day where I've somehow missed something coming right towards me and cause an unnecessarily accident. It's like things sometimes disappear in front of me, as though I'm Dyslexic to objects. How do other people here cope who have object blindness and drive their own car?


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Mdyar
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22 Nov 2011, 5:12 pm

Joe90 wrote:
I've discovered that I have object blindness - quite severely to the point where it becomes embarrassing for me, and I'm not sure if it's because I lack confidence in doing physical tasks when watched, or if it's just an awkward trait I have what I will never get rid of.

I have passed my driving test, so I can't do too badly with driving, but sometimes I worry about it because I haven't been in a car by myself yet and what if my object blindness becomes a hazard for me and other vehicles on the road? In my driving lessons I used to worry about joining motorways because it involves a lot of ''mirror work'', and due to my Dyspraxia I have trouble with judging directions and distances, and so I had major trouble when looking in my side mirror to see if the cars behind (who were already on the mitorway) were far behind enough to allow me to gently pull onto the motorway safely. But each time I looked in my side mirror, my brain didn't seem to register properly what was coming up behind me, and so I needed to take a longer look in the side mirror but when I did I wasn't then concentrating on the road ahead of me, and I nearly ran into a car that was in front of me.....

I'm not sure if it is stupidity or object blindness but I'm worrying because if I do get a car and start driving about there might become a day where I've somehow missed something coming right towards me and cause an unnecessarily accident. It's like things sometimes disappear in front of me, as though I'm Dyslexic to objects. How do other people here cope who have object blindness and drive their own car?


OH my.

I have OB, but it entails an inability to recognize objects that I'm looking for.... say if I'm looking for a tool, and it is right in front of my eyes...... I can't see it until I relax a bit, then it appears right there.... all incumbent on load or stress.

When driving though, my ADHD can be a problem..... speeding tickets, and even one in an obvious school zone :lol: Crossing the yellow line, wandering off to the shoulder of the road.

I cannot be distracted behind the wheel. Usually I'm good behind the wheel, but given too much to do or an overwhelming circumstance portends trouble......

If you can, drive at times with less traffic. And that old adage practice makes perfect plays out too.

Sorry for the platitudes.



melissa17b
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22 Nov 2011, 9:37 pm

I also have pronounced visual agnosias (object blindness of the "it's under my nose but I don't see it" variety, as well as prosopagnosia,) not to mention small retinal lacunae. There is also a profound difference in my bilateral processing, so my left and right sides see and register at a rate so different that I am essentially left-side-blind despite "raw" 20/80 vision in that eye. As a result, I don't have true depth perception; only a mind-manufactured version of it from creating mental maps of what is in front of me and gauging distances from these images. I'm also prone to ADD-ishness in many situations; fortunately, driving is not one of them. In fact, it is very much the opposite – as is the case with the majority of activities that most people find repetitive and monotonous, I find driving, particularly very long trips on remote highways, to be relaxing, and I pretty much never lose focus. Just this year I have driven over 1,000 miles in a single day on six separate occasions.

High-speed traffic interaction, such as joining busy motorways, required a few years of figuring out what works for me. The standard drivers' education techniques don't work for me. As a hyper-systemising type, I find it quite easy and natural to build a detailed mental model of the traffic flow, the road, and the surroundings, so I always know what is going on all around me. I continuously use the rear-view and drivers' side mirrors to update this dynamic image. I can't assimilate passenger-side mirror information, so I don't even bother to look there. I try to minimise turning around to look behind me, because when I do it can take up to a couple of seconds to re-focus ahead and reconstruct my mental road image, and a couple of seconds is forever when driving. I limit looking back to reversing and preparing for lane changes when the traffic flow is heavy and fast enough that I may have missed someone sneaking into a blind spot. This has been enough to avoid incidents on the road (tripping on the last step walking down to the street is another issue altogether...)

My advice: drive in situations you can comfortably handle, and then slowly take on more. Use what you can do well to compensate for what you cannot do so well. As they say, a nervous driver is a dangerous driver, and confidence can only come from experience.