The Driving Experience, Driving Simulator - Irvine, California

Nicki Mitchell

The driving experience was truly a confidence builder for my daughter, new to driving. Lina was so patient and encouraging as a guide for how to maximize the simulator experience. In the days that have followed since my daughter completed her lessons, it’s amazing how many simulated experiences have appeared in her everyday real-life experience on the road. She actively and excitedly acknowledges when she encounters something that she’s been simulator prepped for. I’d highly recommend this for any new driver and I must say that watching my daughter go through the lessons was a good refresher for me (an experienced driver)! I don’t think most new drivers receive a lot of the basics of good and safe driving techniques and this simulator is a very realistic opportunity to practice safe driving in a safe and non threatening way. It makes new drivers more confident to try in the real world. Highly recommended.

Jeff Mitchell

The Driving Experience Driving Simulator was everything I hoped it would be. I was looking for something safe to get my daughter from "no driving experience" to "a little bit of decent experience. " She started on the simulator on a Friday, and by Sunday morning I felt comfortable with her driving us home in a real car from a local high school. The simulator is a car driving in a virtual city in different driving conditions like rain, night driving, fog, off road, and it deals various driving "what if" scenario's. She even got to practice driving on freeways! I went to work on Monday and I feel my driving improved and I've driven from Los Angeles, California to Toronto, Canada and back.

After a weekend at The Driving Simulator, the following Monday I signed my daughter up for a real Behind The Wheel Training lesson. The virtual driving scenario calmed my fears about the safety of my daughter getting behind the wheel of a car. Thank you so much Lena for giving my daughter virtual driving lessons. Your driving knowledge is second to none.

Jeff Mitchell
Dad

Alex Jackson

Automotive Simulation is an amazing tool, so useful racecar drivers practice on the simulator for tracks they have never been to and under some circumstances due to weather they end up starting the race with zero actual practice or qualifying, taking the green flag going 160+mph in to turn 1 and the way the car is set up for the race by the engineers and crew chief is all done on the simulator making the correct adjustments for long/short run performance, front and back balance over a fuel run, keeping the car balance and drivability out front in clean air and traffic. This should be taken advantage of much more than it is for new drivers, honestly they need to make it mandatory for Electric Bikes before it gets more out of control than it is. Some of these kids are not even teenagers and ride E-bikes with same or more power than a gas motorcycle with the right app or disconnection of 1 wire, addition of a little control box that's a few bux on Amazon removes the speed limiter and can make double or more available power without changing any actual hardware. Just software changes some as easy as a free app to connect via Bluetooth and make the changes to the factory settings. This should be a tool used much more to avoid tragic situations, kids have no idea what can happen at speeds they are dealing with, on top of that they almost always have a friend riding on the back that is a very dangerous battery pack not a seat. Just a week ago a vehicle made a U turn and was hit broadside by an E-bike with 2 kids on it going up hill at 60mph . This could be part of the road to a solution, kids can see how quickly you are in a bad situation that's hard to avoid from the perspective of a person driving a car trying to avoid an E-bike flying out of nowhere and understand how hard the car drivers perspective is already dealing with a lot and bikes coming out of nowhere at 15-25mph is hard to avoid and near impossible at 50-60mph even if stopping the vehicle changing direction at higher speed on a bike is harder and with 2 people double that mass it's similar to impaired simulation driving the reaction times and effort is much more demanding. After kids see how hard it is for cars to avoid them flying around a corner, flying from the sidewalk to the bike lane or in the actual car lanes (I've seen kids go off the sidewalk to the left hand turn lane in front of traffic no helmets then waiting in the turn lane like a motorcycle. It's getting worse everyday, a similar simulation as a E-bike rider to learn the rules of riding a bike safely, first we need some E-bike traffic laws and performance limiter certified and tamper proof for under aged unlicensed riders, requiring a training certificate from a place like this to understand the situation from both perspectives or else the first lesson they learn is most likely to come at a high cost with life altering injury if they're lucky. Also online or in person parent awareness classes and literature about what they're buying for their kids the reality of the technology only to purchase bikes with parental control app available or add already available live GPS units to monitor speed and location track. I don't know what it will take before we all wake up, I hope something like this can be fun and save lives even before they are able to drive a street vehicle at 16, they will return at 15 once again to prepare for the DMV Drivers test and being more prepared than others. I love the life saving potential using technology to save ourselves from technology. Just like anything else, Ai, it's how it's used and implemented in to society determines if it helps or hurts us all. Please speak up about this issue we have solutions that can be ready almost immediately. Thank you!!!!

Denise Fenton

Wow! What a great experience for new drivers! I took my 2 daughters to The Driving Experience so they could get driving practice in a more controlled setting. As I sat and watched, there were scenarios that wouldn’t necessarily be experienced during the permit period. The equipment was state of the art. They both feel that they learned a great deal. My younger daughter isn’t quite ready for her permit so she didn’t have any driving experience. It was amazing to see her growth over the month. Lina is a wonderful person! Such a great teacher with a calm demeanor and was flexible. Highly recommend it to all beginning drivers.

Ryan Marty

If you are looking for a way to help supplement your driver's behind the wheel training, this will definitely help. The simulator has allowed my daughter to become more aware of her surroundings and to anticipate possible scenarios when out driving in the real world. It also provides a safe environment to understand better these situations and has built her confidence while preparing to take her driver's test. Lina provides a lot of encouragement and her calm approach to teaching is absolutely amazing. My daughter is grateful for the experience and I highly recommend giving Lina a call to see if this could help your child.

Melissa habib

Lina at The Driving Experience was top notch! She was so kind and professional. She gave the individual time and attention to my daughter that she needed to help her become a better driver. I highly recommend this program if you have a teen interested in getting their drivers permit. The program is worth every penny!

Ray Andrew Golucino

The Driving Experience provides a venue for would-be drivers to learn, build-on, and/or sharpen driving skills in a safe environment. My daughter spent 7 hours in a simulated environment and I can say that she learned a lot with her time in the simulator (and Lina’s guidance) without the added stress and pressure of being on the road with other cars and pedestrians. Lina is very patient and encouraging. She’s also very generous with her time and expertise. I highly recommend The Driving Experience.

Laura Boldt

My 22 year old son attended for her intensive training and truly benefited from the experience. Lina is wonderful and patient and really understood where he needed help multitasking and focusing while driving.
This is a blessing for anyone struggling with driving and who needs a little more help.
A huge gift to our community. Would highly recommend. Definitely a great value as well.