TOYOTA BUILDS WOLRD'S LARGEST DRIVING SIMULATOR.

This new contraption that Toyota built looks more a rig out of Minority Report or maybe even a project from JPL. But in reality, it's Toyota’s awesome new driving simulator which was unveiled to the press here in Japan this week.

Claimed to be the biggest of its kind in the world, this giant simulator dome stands 15 feet high and 23 feet across.



Inside sits a car – a Lexus IS sedan – and giant computer-generated images of streets and cities flash up on the walls. The ceiling of the dome serves as a giant 360-degree concave video screen.

Under computer control, the driver inside the dome will “drive” as if on public roads, the simulator replicating the actual sensation of driving with speed, acceleration, vibration, noise, elevation changes – you name it. No mention of tailgating and road rage, though.

To make this happen, the simulator moves along a complex rail system, lengthways by 115 feet, sideways by a further 66 feet. It can also tilt a maximum of 25 degrees.

Sounds cool; however, the simulator, housed at Toyota’s vast Higashi Fuji R&D center in Japan, is not quite the thrill ride it could – and should be – it seems.

via WR