We need learner drivers!
Published 1 April 2025
Last updated 1 April 2025
If that’s you and you haven’t yet taken a theory test, then you could help. The Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) need volunteers to take part in exciting new research.
Change is coming to driving, but that’s nothing new. We introduced the driving test in 1935 – yes, 90 years ago! And driver training and testing has been responding to changes in car technologies throughout the decades. For example:
- 1969 automatic gearboxes
- 1975 the dropping of arm signals (believe it or not, before 1975, people had to wave their arms out of the car window to signal)
- 2008 eco-safe driving
- 2017 satnavs
Driver training and testing will continue to change as we introduce more technologies, like:
- intelligent speed assistance
- autonomous emergency braking
- full vehicle automation (which will happen soon)
To help people use these systems and innovations properly, we need new methods of training. And we want to develop our understanding of how people learn and how we can use behavioural science and psychology.
This is where you could come in
Now, more than ever, we need to prepare new drivers for the roads with our research into training and testing. In return for a reward, we’re asking volunteers in the South East to participate in a short in-person computer-based study.
If you want to help shape the future of training and testing materials and you haven’t yet taken your theory test, please follow this link or scan the QR code below to find out more.
