Carnetsoft develops and sells software for desktop driving simulator applications. A desktop driving simulator has no cockpit (or  vehicle cabin) with a driver seat. Instead, a steering wheel is attached to a table and the driver is seated in front of a four monitor setup behind the wheel. Carnetsoft does not sell driving simulator cockpits. We only sells  business-to business  and not to private users.

We have driving simulation software for three purposes:

• Behavioural and human factors experiments
• Driver training and testing
• Clinical applications: driver assessment and fitness to drive tests

Its highly recommended to buy all hardware (computer, monitors, steering wheel and pedals etc.) in your country because:

•  it saves high transport costs and import taxes
• faster repairs in case of hardware failure
• its usually cheaper if you buy the hardware locally
• in a number of countries import regulations result in higher costs because of export documents.

You cannot use any computer or laptop to run the software:  it is important to only use the required hardware according to specific specs. 

Tenders

Carnetsoft does not participate in tenders because the price of our software is much lower than the price thresholds for procuring a tender. So all interested parties can buy this software without having to worry about tedious tender procedures.

Ordering procedure

When you order the driving simulator software, an installation will be made with all virtual environments, road signs and rules of the road adapted to your country. The language of the virtual instructor will be English. You will receive an invoice, and the installation will be uploaded to the server within 2-3 weeks after payment, from where you can download the installation by the links you will receive then via email. After you have all the hardware ready, the software will be installed on your computer via AnyViewer. For that, your computer needs to be connected (only for the installation) to the internet.

The regular licence is for 3-channel rendering plus a monitor for the user interface. Three channel rendering means there are 3 monitors for the rendering channels: one for the forward view, one for the left view and one for the right view. This gives a wide horizontal field of view (5760 x 1080 pixels) .

The term ”driving simulator” was originally used for machines with software developed to measure the behaviour of a car driver in a simulated environment. The first driving simulators were research simulators that were used in the car industry, to measure how people drive a car or respond to in-vehice devices, in research labs at Universities to study man-machine interactions and how drivers performed their tasks.

What is a driving simulator?

More recently the term driving simulator  is used more often for gaming software. This type of  driving simulators, or car simulator, is used just for fun and is not really related to normal car driving. They are more like racing simulators, but even then the driving experience is aimed at increasing the fun factor and not to replicate real car driving. In these games, the players are not stimulated to be good drivers in the sense that they are encouraged to drive safely and according to the accepted traffic rules. So someone who performs well in such a ‘driving simulator’ game isn’t necessarily a good driver in a real car in the real world.

In other words: the behaviour that is expected in the game does not match the expected behaviour in a real car in the real world.  So, this type of software is not made to simulate real world driving and thus the term ”driving simulator” is not entirely correct in this case. You don’t become a good driver when using these games because you are basically learning all the wrong things, the task environment does not resemble real world driving, and because there’s no instructor who’s monitoring your behaviour and giving appropriate feedback.

These games are made to impress by using state of the art graphics and bigger than life physics that are often incorrect. But they are a lot of fun to play, and that’s what they are made for. A lot of players don’t even use steering wheels or pedals to drive around. Real driving also requires the driver to look around because visual scanning is an important part of driving, but since most games use only one monitor, visual scanning is not a serious part of these so called driving simulator games.

It is better to reserve the term ”driving simulator ” for serious game applications:

• for driver training, where the focus is on safe driving, automation of driving task-related skills, visual scanning, applying the traffic rules, and learning to drive in different traffic environments (highways, rural roads, towns etc.), so it is also referred to as a driver training simulator
• for assessment of driver fitness, where the task demands have to be similar to real world driving, and the driver performs a series of standard tests that are ecologically valid, reliable and the same for all subjects. This type of application can be referred to as a driver assessment simulator.
• for research into driving behaviour, man-machine interactions, driver safety, etc. These car simulators include functionality for data sampling, experiment construction and scenario creation, to make scientific research into car driving easier and safer. The term ‘research driving simulator’ is often referred to in this context.