The WA Centre for Road Safety Research at UWA recently welcomed a new state-of-the-art driving simulator, the purchase of which was jointly funded by the Road Safety Commission, Main Roads and The University of Western Australia.

The simulator, which was built by Australian company CKAS Mechatronics, is a fully immersive driving simulation platform built into a genuine Kia SUV.

Experiments run in the simulator will be able to fully model a 3D environment to scale, and include other road users like vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists in the simulations.

This new technology will allow researchers to safely test the impacts of new road layouts, driver distractions and the impact of drugs and alcohol - all within a controlled environment.