Do you have trouble driving?

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have liecence, hate driving, espesialy night time and i always get lost. which is why i always live within walking distance to the office so i dont need a car

I know a lot of autistic people have trouble driving. My mother, (presumed autistic), doesn't like to drive in populated areas.

I have some trouble driving in unfamiliar, highly populated areas, like downtown major cities, or highways during rush. But I've largely gotten over it. I avoid major traffic whenever I can, although when traveling, I do occasionally even enjoy it. The metro area in which I live is so large, and so jammed, that it's extremely rare for me to visit or drive anywhere that's any worse, (NYC, London, Boston, are the only ones I've been to in years that were scary).

Mostly, I really enjoy driving. I also motorcycle and have taken several longish trips, including motorcycling europe and australia.

I can't drive! I'd prefer sitting in the back with my Buffy doll! I feel more secure!

I am 24, an Aspie with two children and just got my license a few months ago! I was so worried and it too me forever to go in and retake the written test I was so afraid I'd fail but I read the book 5 times and passed my written on the first try... I had failed a written prior when 16 after a permit ran out when I was 15, I thought for sure I was gonna fail again I wasn't confident in myself. I had to have 2-3 years of experience on 1st permit (1 year) at 15 and 2nd permit 24 (1 year and half) as the permit was a 2 year permit, but over time with practice and back roads or parking lots starting off I went to busier roads around more cars. I was a very anxious person, but with time and practice, I made it and didn't give up like my dad said and passed for my license a few months ago! I was so excited and nervous, I thought I'd fail my eye exam and my driver instructor was really nice and you don't have to "know everything to pass the drive test" it only goes by points and say you miss parallel parking after awhile of practice and getting into the routine - don't sweat it and "don't be so hard on yourself" like my drive instructor told me. Sometimes it takes some longer to accomplish something they want (for ex. Drivers license) but if you really want it - practice, practice and practice, it doesn't happen overnight! It took me a few years of "just practicing on most back roads to get to the real thing". Don't be hard on yourself and once you know the routine like I did from parking lots and learned everything I knew what to expect, how to use gears, blinkers etc I wasn't as anxious about the idea. I never liked highways neither that was also one of my biggest fears, well hitting a car ha! What I do is I drive hurry and look over my shoulder for any cars and if I see any when I'm on the ramp I slow down and merge behind them and then if it's two car lengths behind me I hurry and put my turn signal on, and speed up and get infront of them (and don't slow down) and keep the speed up. Hopefully that makes sense? Good luck! Remember it doesn't happen overnight! (:

I've been driving for 16 years and it's always been a natural thing for me. My first time behind the wheel in 1996, the instructor didn't believe that it was actually my first time because I just did it with no issues. I drive daily in NYC traffic and I often give my passengers mild heart attacks, but I haven't lost control of the situation (even narrowly avoided an accident) in at least a decade. I think I'm actually better than most people at seeing the big picture of what is happening around me and up ahead in traffic and making decisions on that information on an ongoing basis. I've also become really good at predicting the future actions of other drivers. I own a high performance car, and I do track days where I push the thing to its limit on a curvy course.

It sounds like this is completely un-aspie of me.

I'm a lousy driver. I don't go too far. I tire easily and - people would be afraid to know this - sometimes I am not sure about what I see or don't see and I just hope for the best. I bus a lot. I drive a short distance to work when it is quiet and on streets with sparse traffic. I have terrible anxiety, too.

LM

Not really. I actually LIKE to drive, but only when I'm alone. I tend to get distracted when I drive -- singing to the radio, or see something out of the window or simply zone out -- , so I may weave or drift off the side of the road a bit or stop too quickly. It scares people who ride with me, so I just don't carry people around unless necessary. Luckily that doesn't happen very often.

I tried driving lessons. I hated the power. Every time i would drive past a group of people all i could think was "A twitch of my wrist and they would all go 'pop'". I dont trust myself behind the wheel.

^^I'm 28 and haven't gotten my license yet either. Although bf did have a dream last night that I finally got my permit. It does make me nervous, thinking about trying to do it, because I'm not always attentive (also diagnosed adhd). I notice I pay attention to my surroundings better when bf is driving and he puts on metal music. Because then I can pretend that we're in a post-apocalyptic world and pretty much expect chaos to play out as it does in ample time for both of us to see it and for him to react to it.

Having more miles of highway than any other locale in the us, you can imagine what it would be like to navigate kansas city. But each part of town has its own quirks too. Like if i'm on the kansas side and we get lost, it's a navigational nightmare to get turned around as you don't get as much left turn opportunities as you do in missouri. To be honest, this will play to my strength over bf though because I have a better directional sense than he does. Who knows what it'll be like if I'm further taxed by driving while zipping together directions to navigate by though. But I hate how people in this part of town are where I live. We have all the morons (aside from the kansas side morons) who will cut you off in a heartbeat, run flaming ripe red lights, and then there are the fun elements of pedestrian frogger notably either drunk people or people wearing all black at night jaywalking to the nearest chicken joint.

Yes!

I get sooo stressed driving. I'm constantly on the lookout for dangers (hypervigilant), and if there's a lot of traffic I hate the feeling. I get scared at big complicated roundabouts, I would never go onto a motorway, although I might manage a local dual carriageway. I will never drive out of the area as I don't know the way and I'm terrified of getting lost, and other drivers doing stupid things really stress me out. I can't have distraction when I'm driving either, so with the children in the back they have to be really quiet.

@myfutureselfnme
Im a very good driver as well, you're not alone. I drive for a living atm, and have done for 5 years. The trick with it, and I think where asperger's can help, is attention to detail. I can put my bumpers, wheels, or sides within 1-2 inches of where I want them every time, at speeds up to 120 MPH. Never had an at fault accident, only one speeding ticket since I got my license 7 years ago (10 MPH over). And I log 100-200 Miles a night atm, every night I work. I love the freedom that comes with being my own boss, in my own vehicle, driving the way I want to, where I want to, how I want to. I wont say Im addicted to it because I dont spend any time when Im not driving thinking about it, but I love it when Im doing it.

For everyone else:
I can also see the reverse side, where asperger's lends itself to anxiety and worry and fear, robbing of self-confidence (Particularly because of, IMHO, that heightened awareness of just how deadly what you're driving could be). A vehicle is a weapon as much as a gun is IMHO.... But unlike a gun, driving a car will always present options, nothing happens instantly unless you allow it to (Much to many peoples incredulity in my experience). People always ask me things like "Well what happened if the car in front of you suddenly stopped?", to which I reply "Why would it suddenly stop? and why wouldn't I know its going to suddenly stop? And as long as my eyes are constantly checking its brake lights why wouldn't I be able to brake just about as fast if not faster, depending on vehicle size, speed, weight, and weather?" IE, point Im trying to make, is that a car always presents options.... If a kid jumped out in front of me, Id wreck my car if I could rather then hit that kid. And I've been in many harrowing situations and come out without a single at fault vehicle to vehicle contact. At the end of the day, all ya can do is the best you can do, but I have reason to believe that Asperger's, for me at least, lends itself to my best being better then most other drivers in spatial awareness and reaction times as a result of that awareness....

Aldran

I also have a difficult time with driving. First off, I have absolutely no sense of direction. If I don't have the route memorized, as in I have driven it everyday for at least a couple weeks, I have to at least double the amount of time is should take me to reach my destination. I always get lost. Part of it is because of the sense of direction, part of it is because I miss turns and exits because I wasn't paying attention or wasn't in the right lane at the right time, etc. In heavy traffic areas I always have a bit of anxiety running through my body. I feel like I don't have time to process all the things that are happening.

For instance, just the other day I drove my daughter to the park, the park it 8 blocks down the road we live on. I was driving along nicely and then I hear an ambulance behind me. Okay, I know to pull over, so I look in my review mirror and there is a bike riding just behind. So then I start to panic, I just can't pull over because I would get in the way of the bike, but I have to pull over because the ambulance is behind me. I imagine most people would have no problem with this scenario, but for some reason I just don't know what to do. So I realize I am approaching the end of the block and I just decide to take a right (the bike was far enough behind me at this point and I used my blinker). Now I am going in the wrong direction and have to figure out how to get back to the street I was on. In the end we got to the park but an 8 block drive took 35 minutes.......

Can't drive, WAY to prone to sensory overload, can't figure out what the f**k is going on around me. I have problems just crossing a street though.

I live in New Mexico so not to much traffic where I live, I used to think that I loved to drive, and I do, but just the driving part, I hate other drivers, and I really really hate big cities, definite sensory overload. What I do love are road trips, something about the changing of scenery and keeping the car on the road which is very soothing, the farthest I have drive in one day is about 850 miles, a long day that was. We also make frequent trips (couple of times a year) to Utah so the familiarity of the trip is comforting also, I don't like unfamiliar places because I am always lost. Sadly I am a techno geek who loves his gadgets but can still get lost with a GPS. I really love off roading in a Jeep, it never gets old, I did have a sudden acceleration mishap once, I was positive my foot was on the break but the harder I pushed the faster I went, fortunately I was in 4 low in first gear so I had time to convince my foot it wasn't pressing the break peddle and to switch to the actual break peddle, other then a dead mesquite bush no harm was done.

TLDR: I love to drive, if I am the only car on the road

I think I may have posted in this thread earlier, but it's been so long I can't remember.

If you're sensitive to noise or have other sensory integration problems, driving can help a lot. The vibrations in the road will give you deep pressure input and calm you down. When I was a baby driving for a few hours was the only way to calm myself down. I know a lot of people with sensory problems who drive to calm down. Unfortunately, I don't have my license right now and there are a lot of things that make me nervous about it.

In my own estimation, no. According to my girlfriend, parents, brother, sister, dog, coworkers, friends, strangers and anyone else who's ever ridden in a car that I was driving, well.........