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Driving

NAS91568

Hi, does anyone have any stories they want to share regarding driving as an autistic person? I have been learning since early last year and just failed my practical test today. I find it really hard to judge distances/speeds of cars which means I don't know when it's safe to pull out. I got a serious fault for undue hesitation because it was a repeated issue. I just don't understand how you are meant to know, when there are so many variables and every time is different. 

I haven't disclosed my autism to the DVLA because I didn't think it affects my driving, but does anyone have any ideas about how autism affects their driving? I am thinking that maybe it's time to disclose...

Parents

  • I passed my test on the 2nd attempt. The 1st time I got failed for,

    1. Going 40mph on a road which used to be a 40mph road, but got changed to 30mph and they never bothered putting up new signage.

    2. Passing too close to a parked car. I didn't hit it nor did I see the examiner hanging out the window with a ruler.

    Funnily enough the examiner I got on my 2nd test was apparently notoriously strict. So goes to show how much salt to take with the results of the 1st.

    I found that I needed wetsuit shoes for driving as I needed a lot of tactile feedback from the pedals.

    I found the whole manual gears setup actually quite tricky to get used to. It took me a few months to be fully confident.

    Trying to purchase the first car is always a nightmare unless you have the bank of mummy and daddy. "Just get a cheap car" they say. Yeah sure, even if the car is £300. The insurance is £1500, the tax is £250. And it's always a heap which needs £600 of repairs in the first month. Then the MOT is £700. And it costs £60 to fill it with petrol.

    Whilst I very much appreciate the convenience of having a car. At the same time, I absolutely bloody hate it!

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  • I passed my test on the 2nd attempt. The 1st time I got failed for,

    1. Going 40mph on a road which used to be a 40mph road, but got changed to 30mph and they never bothered putting up new signage.

    2. Passing too close to a parked car. I didn't hit it nor did I see the examiner hanging out the window with a ruler.

    Funnily enough the examiner I got on my 2nd test was apparently notoriously strict. So goes to show how much salt to take with the results of the 1st.

    I found that I needed wetsuit shoes for driving as I needed a lot of tactile feedback from the pedals.

    I found the whole manual gears setup actually quite tricky to get used to. It took me a few months to be fully confident.

    Trying to purchase the first car is always a nightmare unless you have the bank of mummy and daddy. "Just get a cheap car" they say. Yeah sure, even if the car is £300. The insurance is £1500, the tax is £250. And it's always a heap which needs £600 of repairs in the first month. Then the MOT is £700. And it costs £60 to fill it with petrol.

    Whilst I very much appreciate the convenience of having a car. At the same time, I absolutely bloody hate it!

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