approximately $1.4 million<\/a> and taking four years to develop, the four hyperrealistic devices are being integrated into the MTA\u2019s mandatory training curriculum as the agency looks to hire around 2,000 employees by year\u2019s end.<\/p>\nThe goal: to make training safer and speedier before the rubber hits the road.<\/p>\n
To accomplish this, the immersive arcade game recreates real-world street conditions on a 4K, partially-panoramic screen \u2014 a major upgrade from the nearly 20-year-old system it\u2019s replacing.<\/p>\n
Cost attempts a turn in the simulator. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n
The simulation, which offers general training or specific routes, allows the user to navigate obstacles including e-scooters, oblivious pedestrians, and even slick roads, all from the safety of a stationary imitation bus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can adjust anything on the fly,\u201d boasted Brandon. \u201cWe could blow out your tires \u2026. make your brakes fail.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cWe could have the traffic lights changing quickly, or we could make it at a regular timing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instructors can customize everything from the number of cars on the road to pedestrian temperament, which ranges from mild to Gotham-level aggressive.<\/p>\n
The faux bus boasts an operational console complete with turn signals, a horn and more. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n
All the while, users control a full physical setup, complete with a steering wheel, gas and brake pedals, and other controls, while an aerial camera lets them monitor their blind spots from above so that they can gauge their distance from the curb and other vital info.<\/p>\n
An integrated performance dashboard allows trainers to track operator performance and provide targeted feedback.<\/p>\n
One can think of it like an educational version of the Grand Theft Auto games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can adjust anything on the fly,\u201d boasted Brandon while describing the immersive pursuit (above). \u201cWe could blow out your tires \u2026 make your brakes fail.\u201d J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n
Gamifying bus training isn\u2019t about appealing to youth, though; it\u2019s about equipping drivers for an environment where one can get blindsided in a New York minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York City is one of the more challenging places to operate a bus, and so we want to use the technology to get our operators prepared,\u201d explained Brandon. \u201cWe have operators that start working with us in the summertime, so they\u2019ve never experienced driving a bus in the snow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will allow us to train them as a new bus operator in the snow, so they have some feel for what the bus is going to handle like.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 4,300 bus operators will train annually on the simulators,\u00a0which are designed with the flexibility to incorporate potential future upgrades, including advancements in bus technology such as electric vehicle (EV) charging systems and e-mirrors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chester Francis, who\u2019s been a bus operator for over 20 years, called the virtual training wheels a major upgrade from their predecessors.<\/p>\n
Cost drives the virtual bus while the MTA\u2019s Alvaro Brandon looks on. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom when I started, [it\u2019s] totally different,\u201d he told The Post. \u201cEverything was so mechanical. Now, you actually can see tears if you want. You can actually feel a bump, hear a horn, and the way they can zoom in from the top, the side, so you can actually see your mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he pointed out, it helps nip any \u201coh, s\u2013t\u201d moments in the bud.<\/p>\n
Curious to see how a normal citizen would fare, I took the faux proletariat chariot for a digital spin around the fake Big Apple. <\/p>\n
For someone who\u2019s never driven a bus, the learning experience was slow-going. Compared to my Subaru Forester, which I regularly drive on the real streets of Gotham, the console seemed more riddled with buttons than the Batmobile.<\/p>\n
One major adjustment is the transport\u2019s response time \u2014 it responds with a delay due to its size.<\/p>\n
That means braking and turning well in advance from the proper position \u2014 no \u201cFast & Furious\u201d-style hairpin turns here. Before making a left turn, drivers must stop and align their left shoulder with the target street\u2019s center line; for a right turn, they line up their shoulder with the curbside pole.<\/p>\n
Turn signaling, for the uninitiated, is facilitated by stepping on designated left and right buttons with one\u2019s left foot.<\/p>\n
For a seasoned operator like Francis, these maneuvers are child\u2019s play; to a civilian like me, the exercise seemed akin to driving a German Tiger tank on bath salts.<\/p>\n
Despite my best efforts, I ran the course like the transit version of Mr. Toad\u2019s Wild Ride<\/a>, hopping a curb, nearly sideswiping a motorcycle, and running a red light. <\/p>\nAt any second, I expected to be pulled over by a virtual NYPD cruiser.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, my guardian angel Brandon helped us avert disaster, pumping the master brake before any digital collisions could occur and reducing the amount of traffic like the architect from the \u201cMatrix.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say I won\u2019t be ferrying riders about anytime soon \u2014 but this experience gave me a newfound appreciation for what MTA operators do every day. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ll think twice before wishing the M4 would go a little faster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m driving an MTA bus down a busy New York City street,\u00a0doing my best to stay in my…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":756556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,18394,20503,6335,1165,5248,9904,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,9907,10576,522,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,729],"class_list":["post-756555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-buses","tag-driving","tag-exclusive","tag-lifestyle","tag-metro","tag-mta","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-public-transportation","tag-training","tag-transportation","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-virtual-reality"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116476595877323477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}