Virtual Reality Game for Teens Conveys Dangers of Distracted Driving
Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of teen death worldwide and in the U.S. Distracted driving plays a larger role in teen crashes due to their experience in driving, poor risk assessment skills, and phone use habits. New interventions and drivers’ training modules are necessary to jumpstart change.
Virtual reality could prove pivotal in providing hands-on experience of the dangers of distracted driving in a safe learning environment. We piloted an innovative approach to help address the critical issue of distracted driving behaviors among teenagers.
We integrated the theory of planned behavior into the study’s educational materials and evaluation. Between the Distracted Navigator VR game and the facilitated discussion, participants explored texting attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control related to texting while driving behaviors in an attempt to ultimately impact behaviors.
We integrated the theory of planned behavior into the study’s educational materials and evaluation. Between the Distracted Navigator VR game and the facilitated discussion, participants explored texting attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control related to texting while driving behaviors in an attempt to ultimately impact behaviors.
Results
Our findings show the novel use of immersive VR experiences with facilitated discussions can raise awareness of distracted driving consequences and is a promising method to enhance driving safety education.
After the program, our teen participants reported they were less confident that they could text while driving safely. They also reported liking the immersive experience of the game, readily making the connection between their game play and real-life consequences of distracted driving.
“It makes more apparent with how dangerous distractions really are...I was hitting five things—five asteroids when I was texting. It reminds me of that. It took about the same amount of time of pushing the buttons as a text would take. It really shows you how you can hit so many things or cause that many accidents in such a short amount of time. It was like two seconds.”
The teens also found the discussion-based educational format to be engaging and more interactive than a traditional lecture format, noting they “were having fun at the same time while learning things”.
“I like it being more of a conversation than just a teacher or somebody showing it to you.”
Next steps
With additional participant feedback on how to improve the gameplay and discussion, we will prepare for a larger, randomized controlled trial to evaluate their impact on distracted driving beliefs and objective distracted driving behaviors using smartphone monitoring technology. In the meantime, drivers’ educational materials and training could be readily altered to use more discussion-based learning to draw student drivers into thoughtful conversation about the consequences of distracted driving.
The open-access peer reviewed article can be found here.