DRIVESS

The project DRIVESS is an european research project to study the ability of elderly people to drive a car and is being done in cooperation with the swiss Working Group on Accident Mechanics (AGU), the ETH Zurich and the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). In Swiss and other countries it is mandatory for elderly people to regularly test their ability to drive a motor vehicle. At the moment swiss has no standardized test, hence the practicing physician is forced to rely on more or less subjective criteria.

The goal of DRIVESS is to develop an objective procedure that can be used to assess the ability to drive a motor vehicle. Therefor the connection between different neuro-psychological and medical test procedures as well as driving ability is being studied. To develop an adequate test results from Naturalistic Driving Observations and driving simulator examinations are being compared to results of sccase measurements and attention tests. For that reason driving takes place on public roads under normal conditions, providing insight into the required specific skills of the driver and possible testing methods. With the help of the driving simulator it is possible to simulate critical situations without danger or risk of injury.