question to the licensed drivers

[NoriYuki Sato]

the reason this is to fully licensed drivers and not to driver's ed to permit drivers, is because they haven't been driving long enough to experience this..i have been driving for 3 years last month on my own license, my own car for 3 years this January. my question is as follows:

have any of you licensed drivers lost focus, then ended up around 5-7 miles ((or however many, could just be 1 mile)) down the road, and not knowing how you got there, or if you were following rules of the road, or being safe, but having been following the same car, knowing you've hit stoplights and stopsigns and such..then suddenly get kinda freaked out and have a sudden urge to pull over and wake the hell up?

this happens to me every now and again, i'd say it's happened a total of 10-12 times in my 3 years of driving, it scares the crap out of me, because i could have run some peopel off the road, or ran stopsigns and stoplights, and at that point i become unsafe because i get jittery and over-focused. usually happens when i'm tired, or i've had a rough couple of days

also, permit dirvers and driver's ed people BEWARE OF THIS HAPPENING TO YOU!!!

 

[Puzzles]

When I used to text while driving, I'd look up after typing the message and realise I couldn't remember a thing about how I got where I was.

Texting and driving is incredibly dangerous, and I'm glad I stopped.

 

[Inverse Skies]

Nope, not in the slightest. I wouldn't understand what you were talking about if a good friend of mine hadn't had about four crashes in two years because of a similar situation. He gets bored when driving and starts to think about other things, so when he's distracted by his mind he often ends up crashing into others. Thankfully no one has been hurt yet, but we don't have any sympathy for him anymore.

 

[VanQ]

No, I have never lost focus while driving even when tired. You wont always remember everything since your mind will sort of take over with a bit of autopilot, my friend calls this "Unconciuos Competence." But your problem seems different to that and maybe you should see a doctor about it before you end up off the road without a clue how you got there.

 

[NoriYuki Sato]

No, I have never lost focus while driving even when tired. You wont always remember everything since your mind will sort of take over with a bit of autopilot, my friend calls this "Unconciuos Competence." But your problem seems different to that and maybe you should see a doctor about it before you end up off the road without a clue how you got there.

well the good news is, i always seem to follow all the rules of the road, one time i looked in my rear-view after said situation, and a cop was behind me..i remembered i pulled out in front of him when i left my house..we were 6 miles down the road, i blanked out after about 2..i knew it was the same one..i could see the car number

Nope, not in the slightest. I wouldn't understand what you were talking about if a good friend of mine hadn't had about four crashes in two years because of a similar situation. He gets bored when driving and starts to think about other things, so when he's distracted by his mind he often ends up crashing into others. Thankfully no one has been hurt yet, but we don't have any sympathy for him anymore.

yeah, luckily only crash i've ever had wasn't my fault..and wasn't a cause of said situation..and got me my car =D bad news is...at 10 am, my mom sent in the final payment for her car..as of 7 pm the same day..rear end collision with me driving, totalled it...and i wouldn't have any sympathy for him either to be honest

 

[Spitfire175]

Nah, never happened to me. I take driving very seriously.

 

[asinann]

No, but I do fall asleep at red lights occasionally.

 

[Inverse Skies]

yeah, luckily only crash i've ever had wasn't my fault..and wasn't a cause of said situation..and got me my car =D bad news is...at 10 am, my mom sent in the final payment for her car..as of 7 pm the same day..rear end collision with me driving, totalled it...and i wouldn't have any sympathy for him either to be honest

Don't worry we don't, not when every single crash has been his fault entirely.

 

[gRiM_rEaPeRsco]

yeah lol , i do that all the time

 

[Abedeus]

When I used to text while driving, I'd look up after typing the message and realise I couldn't remember a thing about how I got where I was.

Texting and driving is incredibly dangerous, and I'm glad I stopped.

I think it's also punishable by law. Same with talking on the cellphone while driving.

 

[grimsprice]

BEWARE

I'd like to propose something different...

Perhaps you're not blanking out or being distracted. Perhaps your brain is simply deleting repetitious information. I know i do it all the time when i drive the same route every day. I know i'm not day dreaming or anything, because i can go down a street, turn left, go up the hill, turn right, enter the round-about, get off at my street, drive up the hill, turn in my drive way and BAM! I think to myself, how did i get here? When was i last? Jack-in-the-box? Nooooo, i couldn't have driven 43 miles home without remembering any of it...

When the brain performs an action many many many times, it catalogs it as useless information, and simply discards it so it doesn't have to process pattern recognition when you go to sleep.

You never lost focus, and your brain never stopped thinking about driving, the best way to drive, and the cars around you, it simply decides not to remember it.

Happens to me all the time.

Take ruffies for example. One can get drugged up on ruffies, never remember what happened that night, but during the night, the brain was still working out stuff, doing things. Same principle, except its being chemically induced.

 

[Raven's Nest]

I'd like to propose something different...

Perhaps you're not blanking out or being distracted. Perhaps your brain is simply deleting repetitious information. I know i do it all the time when i drive the same route every day. I know i'm not day dreaming or anything, because i can go down a street, turn left, go up the hill, turn right, enter the round-about, get off at my street, drive up the hill, turn in my drive way and BAM! I think to myself, how did i get here? When was i last? Jack-in-the-box? Nooooo, i couldn't have driven 43 miles home without remembering any of it...

When the brain performs an action many many many times, it catalogs it as useless information, and simply discards it so it doesn't have to process pattern recognition when you go to sleep.

You never lost focus, and your brain never stopped thinking about driving, the best way to drive, and the cars around you, it simply decides not to remember it.

Happens to me all the time.

Take ruffies for example. One can get drugged up on ruffies, never remember what happened that night, but during the night, the brain was still working out stuff, doing things. Same principle, except its being chemically induced.

Yeah, essentially this is more or less what I was going to say.

I get it every so often, but sometimes I'll end up in some random place instead of the direction I was meant to be going... I assume i'm conscious the whole time because I've never had an accident but it does freak me out occasionally.

I liken the sensation to be comparable with deja-vu. You're brain is kind of working at a different pace to your eyes whilst your conscious and sub-concious stop talking to eachother for a while...