The idea is that putting on a VR headset is like stepping into another place, where the user is able to see in 360 degrees and feels as though they are literally existing within a new environment.

This concept, it is now thought, could help to improve the training and assessment of learner drivers before they are let loose onto the roads, writes TP News Editor Steve Dale.

Research carried out by Nottingham Trent University is said to have proven that using virtual reality to perform driver hazard perception training produces better results than testing using a screen.

The conclusion feels logical. The ability to see all of your surroundings while behind the wheel of a virtual car ought to make the exercise seem more realistic, producing results that are closer to the driver’s performance in the real world.

But until now claims for the effectiveness of VR for driver training have gone unsubstantiated. Professor David Crundall from the university told guests to an event at the RAC Club on Monday: “We think we finally have the evidence that suggests we can definitively say virtual reality shows superiority over more traditional formats in terms of hazard perception testing.”

The university’s research involved pitting 30 experienced drivers against 30 learner drivers in hazard perception tests using both a virtual reality headset and a single screen, as used currently for driver licencing.

“We expect highly experienced drivers to score higher than the learners,” said Professor Crundall. “But the question was, when we move from a single screen test to VR, does the gap between the two groups get wider?

“If so, that shows that the virtual reality is a better discriminator, a better sorter of the wheat from the chaff – identifying the safe drivers from the less safe drivers.”

Early data shows this to be the case, indicating that the use of VR does improve the effectiveness of the test by more accurately replicating a driver’s true hazard perception performance. And, when asked about their experience, test participants broadly considered VR to be more realistic, immersive and engaging.

This represents an exciting development. Estimates suggest that the basic hazard perception test has prevented 1000 road collisions causing injury every year since its introduction in 2002.

If the suggestion is now that using VR produces better results, this could contribute to driving down road casualties which have been slowly creeping up in recent years after a long period of flatline in the statistics.

However there remains one problem – cyber sickness. An estimated five to 10% of people will, when placed into a virtual reality by putting on a headset, experience a feeling of nausea.

This may seem like a small price to pay if VR hazard perception testing has the potential to improve road safety. But the sickness problem presents an accessibility issue which, Professor Crundall believes, means VR hazard perception testing will never be used for formal driver licencing by the DVSA.

“You can’t have 100,000 people doing the test every month with 10,000 of them feeling ill after being in the headset,” he says.

Back to square one then? Not necessarily. It is thought that virtual reality could still be a novel way of performing early assessment and training of some learner drivers as well as in commercial scenarios for training professional drivers.

Nottingham Trent University’s research was carried out in conjunction with the RAC Foundation, DVSA and the Road Safety Trust.