When Simulation Isn’t a Game

The vital role of simulators in creating and assessing self driving cars

I played Flight Simulator on a Commodore 64 when I was young. My plane crashed (a lot!) but it didn’t matter because it was just a simulator. The game tested my flying skills by arbitrarily changing the weather or having an instrument fail so I could learn how to react to unusual circumstances. Now the same principles are at the heart of the trillion dollar self driving car goldrush.