Rethinking road safety training: change of perspective thanks to VR
March 13, 2023 | Ideas for immersive and interactive road safety training in Fraunhofer's Magazine and podcast
In 2021, around 22,000 children between the ages of six and 15 were injured in road traffic accidents. For several years, Fraunhofer IVI has been working to change these accident statistics for the better. The focus is particularly on ten- to 15-year-olds – they are "the forgotten age group" in road safety education. To improve road safety among children and adolescents and make them aware of the associated daily dangers, researchers at the institute developed the Fraunhofer IVI Accident Prevention School (FAPS). FAPS is a prevention course specifically aimed at young people, which is intended to provoke sustainably effective "aha" experiences through real accident data from the children's school environment and the use of new technologies such as virtual reality.
The article "Out of the danger zone" in the new issue of Fraunhofer Magazine looks at the approaches in detail. In addition, traffic psychologist Nora Strauzenberg and accident researcher Dr. Christian T. Erbsmehl appeared as guests on the Fraunhofer podcast. In this episode, they explain the underlying idea how children can safely slip into the perspective of truck drivers, and how cooperation with schools can succeed.