Learning how to drive in the 50’s!
Here we have a group of high school students drivers’ education students practice their skills in model cars inside the classroom, part of the Aetna Drivotrainer system.
Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. of Hartford, Conn., developed their driving simulators back in the 1950s, the half-ton machines were described as “the toughest three-minute drive of your life.” The device’s “mechanical brain” measured the motorist’s reactions to “sudden and unexpected problems” that might occur while commuting.
These consoles resembled cars and were equipped with a steering wheel, accelerator, brake pedal, directional signals and functional horn. They would project three-minute color movies onto a white screen representing the view through the car’s windshield.