Truck Simulation

Only the editor could manage to crash a truck on a totally empty road.
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So I’m driving a truck, a large M.A.N 18-wheeler articulated rig with a haul of rocks from a quarry in Fujeriah.

The load is heavy, very heavy, and as I try winding the truck down a winding mountain road, the trailer starts behaving like a pendulum and the tractor becomes unsettled.

The steering starts jerking, and I’m all too aware off a huge vertical drop on my right hand side.

The downhill gradient suddenly increases to 12%. The footbrake struggles to slow the machine’s huge inertia, and they quickly overheat. I urgently grab the airbrake and feather it to bring the speed of the vehicle under control.

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FEATURED COMMENT Hi, where can i obtain details to purchase a simulator?   1 Comments Read more comments »

It works, but my moment of panic had cased me to take my eyes off the road and the truck goes flying off the crest of a hairpin bend wile everything in my vision goes black…

Luckily I’m still here to tell the tale as even the most relaxed and well-insured quarry operator isn’t mad enough to let me drive a heavy rock truck over a mountain pass, or indeed anywhere.

In fact, I’m at the Emirates Driving Institute school of motoring where I have just tested out a truck simulator – the latest tool in EDI’s efforts to modernise training in the country.

Simulator
The simulator has been installed for a month or two now, but it is still going through a commissioning stage where the trainers themselves are getting used to it.

The simulator comprises of a dashboard from a real truck, complete with airbrake and ignition key. The ‘gear leaver’ is a little different though, appearing to be more like the sequential semi-electric transmission lever found in modern sports cars, and as such takes more than a little getting used to.

The driving experience however is very realistic, with positive feedback, or a robotic simulation of, back through the steering wheel.

Like other simulators that we have tested, the report it prepares immediately on finishing the drive can only be 100% impartial.

There can be no ‘looking the other way’ on the part of the computer – a fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the managers at the driving school as Peter Richardson, the technical and operations manager explains: “Because it can simulate an articulated vehicle, [the computer can] address issues, particularly in respect to adjusting the mirrors to look at the stability of the trailer, which is not always evident from the cab.”

He also explains how the simulator can bring up situations that it is impossible to recreate on a drive around Dubai.

“We also use for night time driving, and for addressing bad weather conditions. We can load up a range of different equipment – things we can’t just go out and do. Of course we can drive in the dark, but sometimes that is logistically not possible.”

It also isn’t possible to recreate mad drivers at will. On a simulated city road a virtual car hurtles into the side of me, and because I hadn’t checked my mirror it would technically have been my fault, as Arfan Raza Hiji, the trainer who looks after the simulator chided me about.