can i Drive?

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Hi im new here im 20 years old and i have High-Functioning Autism i want to know would i be able to drive a car. i been thinking and watching alot of youtube videos how to drive too.

It all depends on the person. You should look into it.

I got my license, although I prefer busing or biking. Busing is less stressful. I can drive just fine, but it's so stressful that I would rather avoid it unless it's a nice, long, peaceful road trip. Even then, I like being the passenger because I can look outside at the fun stuff going by.

At first driving can be somewhat stressful but becomes more intuitive the more you do it. But it also depends on what kind of car you're going to drive and where you live. I HATE driving in the city or with other people in my car because the roads are so confusing and I get flustered easily but out in the suburbs driving by myself I don't have any problems.

Get your permit if you don't have one already and ask someone to let you drive their car in a low traffic area, probably a parking lot to start out with and have them give you tips. I hated the idea of driving so much I didn't get my license until I was 22, I biked or bused everywhere, so I can understand your apprehension but as they say practice makes perfect. The more you drive in different environments and circumstances the more comfortable you'll become with being behind the wheel.

Hi Riku12! Welcome to Wrong Planet! Check out the many interesting and helpful forums here. You are among friends here at WP!

Being able to drive for those on the spectrum depends on the individual's ability to do so. Don't just go with watching videos. Although that's a help to start with, it's not enough. You will need to study the driver's training manuals, and also take driving lessons. I don't know where you went to school, but many high schools in the USA have a driver's ed course where they have class room teaching of what's in the manual, and then give behind the wheel driver's ed training. My high school did this, so that's where I learned. My father also gave me some behind the wheel practice with one of the family cars. That was decades ago. At the time, many people still wore glasses with heavy glass lenses, as plastic lenses were more money then. Because of the weight of the glasses, and my slightly ski nose, my glasses kept falling down while I was trying to drive. When my father saw that while he was giving me lessons, he finally relented, and sprung for a pair of glasses with plastic lenses. He didn't want me to have an accident caused by my constantly grabbing for falling eye glasses, and I need to wear them to drive. My eyes are too sensitive for contacts. I tried them once and they were awful.

Get a driver's training manual, I think you can get them from the Dept. of Motor Vehicles for free. After you have studied that, sign up for driving lessons, and after you've finished that, get some practice with a family vehicle, and a driving relative along to give you some coaching. Good luck.

Thank you very much those are all Great answers. i will start next month i will let you guys know if i pass.

Good luck. It's working nicely for me so far. Haven't killed anyone, but one bird wasn't so lucky.

I had to learn how to drive to go off to college. My parents each tried to teach me in the traditional manner, and each very quickly gave up. They finally resorted to contacting a driving school to come pick me up once a week and teach me how to drive. I did get my license just in time to start the semester.

If you are not visually impaired, you should be able to drive. It will just be a matter of learning how, and from my experience it can be as hard to learn as social skills. Hard but do-able if sufficient effort is applied

That's something that you need face to face, hands on lessons about. YouTube won't work at all for that.

I can't tell you if you could drive or not, and neither can anyone else until you get in a car with someone to teach you how to do it and you try. Most people aren't that good at it at first, and it can be really scary when you are learning. I have an 18 yo NT daughter who is nervous about learning to drive and has only tried once, and that was driving down a dirt road at 5 mph. Everybody is ready to learn when and only when they are ready. Some learn earlier and some learn later.

My oldest son (NT) learned when he was 12. We were moving and I had to have help getting the stuff to the new house and his daddy was at work. I took him to a parking lot in the truck one morning and taught him how to drive it. That afternoon we started loading furniture into the truck and other stuff into my car and started making trips back and forth to the new house. We only had to move things a short distance and he followed me. He did fine. We went back roads all the way. He wasn't every nervous at all. My daughter on the other hand was a nervous wreck when she tried to drive and she was 6 years older than her brother was when he learned. She still can't drive. Has no clue how to really and won't learn yet.

I learned when I was 17. Some friends taught me. It was an extremely scary experience because of the fact that it started out as a slow and careful lesson up some alleys in a quiet part of town and ended up with my friends husbands foot shoved down over mine holding the gas down and helping me steer because they saw the friend they desperately needed to find, fly past them in his car and so I was thrown into deep water and told to sink or swim. After that, I wasn't scared and I was able to drive.
I don't recommend that method for anyone though. Ever.

Why not get your parents to take you out to a parking lot and start teaching you? If they are too nervous to do that without causing a mental breakdown in both of you before you even put the key in the ignition (and many parents of AS and NT kids are like that, so that happens) then call up a driving school. I don't think it costs much and those teachers are professionals and aren't as easily rattled.

Around here if you have your learners permit, you can drive on the roads with a licensed driver in the car. Here, to get your permit you have to study the little driving handbook and learn the rules and pass a written test and an eye test. Then after you learn to drive you go back and take a road test (really simple here but complicated in other places) and another eye test, and if you pass, you get your license. Here, you never have to take another test again unless your license has been expired for a certain amount of time, or it's been revoked and reinstated. They don't make you take a driving or eye test even if you are 90 years old around here, if you passed one test, one time.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

You just have to try. I had a hard time learning how to drive a car and failed the test several times. I took an incredible amount of driving lessons because it was difficult to pay attention to so many different things at the same time, and I had to practice it over and over again. But I passed the test eventually, which was the biggest success of my life. I'm still not a good driver, but even I got some routine over the years, and I'm glad I've got a driving licence because it's important for me to be independent.

I would like to encourage you just to try it and take some driving lessons. Even if it isn't easy for you, which doesn't have to be so, you can still make it. Even I did!

I got a little confused with the turn signals when I first started driving, but now I'm fine. I got my license at 18. I'm scared though to drive around a major city like DC or New York and probably won't do that. I don't like driving on major highways either.