Here we show you the secret ingredients to become a better, smarter driver faster.

First Smart Driving Lesson With Instructor

https://youtu.be/zubpcPgLvIQ

Closed Caption

Introduction

00:00 - Driving Is a Whole Bunch of Simple Things
00:20 - Diagrams for Exercises - https://www.smartdrivetest.com/beginner-driver-exercises
00:38 - Straight Back & Forth
01:33 - Go HARDER!
01:59 - Throttle Through the Curves
02:17 - The Ohio Manoeuvrability Test - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQp3FZ24hew&list=PL0x-bChcUvwEvSessdmUMd910x9Qhlkth&index=1&t=45s
03:31 - You Just Failed the Test
04:51 - Reasons for Going Slow When Reversing
05:26 - Why’d you keep going? You MUST Know in Driving
05:42 - Shoulder Checking & Blind Areas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrtgVbd87SY&list=PL0x-bChcUvwGBEpLkeqdis7_2SDy5gMbw&index=1
06:35 - Parallel Parking With Cones
07:42 - The MOST Critical Skill - Mirror, Signal, Shoulder Checking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrtgVbd87SY&list=PL0x-bChcUvwGBEpLkeqdis7_2SDy5gMbw&index=1
08:24 - What Charlie Needs to Work on

 Learning to Driving Isn't Hard

- It's like I tell people, driving is not hard.

It's just 4,327 little things often in sequential order.

- Yeah.

I feel like I have like the idea of driving down.

Be sure to get your slow-speed manoeuvre exercises to accelerate your learning and preparing for your driver's test.

It's just like, I got knowledge gaps and things.

- Yeah.

- [Rick] Hi there smart drivers, working with Charlie today.

Charlie has a driving test about three weeks out and we're doing an assessment for learning.

We're figuring out where he's at in his driving.

And then we're going to see how much information he can take on.

Straight Back & Forth Between the Cones

- First exercise pull forward to that cone, touch the cone and then back up straight, and touch that cone and do that twice.

Straight forward, straight back.

Yep.

Now I want you to put the throttle right on the floor.

Drive as fast as you can, hard braking and try and stop.

Before you hit the pilon.

More Charlie...More

Harder, harder do it harder.

- [Rick] I've known Charlie for a few years now I knew that Charlie could drive.

He'd been working with his grandfather, driving with him.

And Charlie was pretty nervous when we first got in the car.

But once we got to the parking lot he overcame his nerves a little bit and we got working on some material.

I told him, to drive harder, drive faster press down on the fuel pedal, press down on the brake.

Then he started to relax a little bit and enjoy the exercises that we were doing.

- So do it in reverse too.

So hard reverse - you didn't hit the cone and it doesn't matter if you hit the cone but just give her.

For like throttle and brake.

Get as close as you think you can.

And then just nail that brake, closer, back up again.

Get closer to the cone.

That's better.

Come on.

There you go.

Now you got it.

Okay.

Back up one more time.

There you go.

Now you nailed it.

Drive.

Yes, it is.

Drive ahead just a little bit.

Okay.

Driving Around the Cones in a Circle

Now on that end, I want you to drive around the cone without hitting my tripod, obviously can go nice and slow.

But on this end, I want you to go around the corner as hard as you can.

So what, you're doing it correctly.

Now, what I want to do is when you're coming down here brake in a straight line.

And then when you go around the corner put your foot on throttle.

Ohio Manoeuverability Test

So you drive forward, go right to the cone.

Stop so the back of the car is in line with that nose cone.

And then you back out and you back out to the same position.

So the front of the car is in line with these two cones here

- [Charlie] So I'm aligning the back to which cone?

- [Rick] The very front one.

- [Charlie] Okay, so-

- [Rick] Yeah.

So you're going to drive in and you're going to go that way around the cone.

So the corner will be on this side of the car.

Okay.

And stop.

So the back of the car is in line with that front cone, and then stop.

360° scan.

Put it in reverse.

Do your checks, back up and then you'll back out like this, like this.

Okay?

- [Charlie] You got it.

- This is the Ohio maneuverability test.

So you just pull up beside it and then stop with the back.

No, that's fine.

It's the first time.

So we'll get it.

I may not be communicating effectively.

- [Charlie] I also don't understand very well either.

- [Rick] No, that's okay.

So now you back this way back through the rectangle here, slow down, slow down.

Boom.

You just failed the test.

Move ahead.

Try again.

Don't hit any cones this time.

It's easy going forward, but going back is a lot tougher.

It's a lot tougher.

So you got to be looking back and forth back and forth right? There you go.

Crank all the way to the left.

See, get out of, there you go.

Now.

Straighten your wheels out.

There you go.

This gives the kids in Ohio.

No end of grief.

Now watch here.

Yep.

There you go.

Excellent.

Now, if you turn your wheels this way the front end will to go that way.

Perfect.

Nice.

Now go up and do it and go to the left of the nose cone.

So is your back in line with the cone that cone over there is the back of the car in line with that cone?

Oh .

- [Charlie] I'm so focused on that side.

- [Rick] Oh.

And that's, and that's exactly it about driving is, is that you've always got to be checking both sides all the time, especially when you're backing up.

Right.

It's over there.

It's moved back a little bit.

And the reason that we go slow when we back up is because you have time to maneuver the vehicle.

You have time to look and you have time to do something if something happens.

So that's why you go slow, but mostly to observe, right?

So you look over there, look over here check over there, check over here.

Cause you're always kind of looking back and forth and that's the same thing with driving.

And that's the purpose of this.

I remember the first time I did this because I'd never done it.

And then I saw the kids in Ohio or like, ah, oh my gosh.

It's not that hard.

I came down here and did it and I was like, that's that's pretty tough.

That's pretty tough.

Nice, nice.

One more time on each side.

So go to the right again.

And then, so why did you keep going?

- I thought I could just sneak by it.

- [Rick] Remember this is driving.

We can't sneak past stuff.

You got to make sure, you got to know for sure.

And that's the purpose of this is knowing where your vehicle is in relation to pedestrians, in relation to other cars, in relation to fire hydrants, utility poles.

And that's what the purpose of this is, right? So that you don't keep going.

I think because you can't think and drive you got to know, okay.

And that's, this is getting a feel for where this is in relation to other things on the road.

And that's why we're doing this.

And this is in as far as I'm concerned this is the most important lesson for new drivers.

Now, the other thing, Charlie, just stop there for a sec.

Look out the front windshield is your car straight?

So if you look forward you'll know whether you're straight or not going backwards.

Okay.

So that's the other technique that you can use.

Parallel Park Between the Cones

So we'll drive around and then we'll parallel park in here.

Nice.

So into park.

Put your parking brake on.

Perfect.

Perfect.

Okay.

So to leave parking brake off into reverse.

360° degree scan around your vehicle.

Make sure there's nobody around backup two to three feet just straight back.

Okay.

And again, make sure you're looking out the back window for that.

All right.

So there, so now we into drive signal on.

Now we do.

So a mirror check is checking the mirror and then shoulder check.

What You're Looking For When You're Shoulder Checking

Charlie it is 90° degrees.

So basically what you're doing is can you see me?

If you turn your head straight, can you see me here?

- No.

- Can you see me in the mirror?

- Yes.

- Can you see me in the mirror?

- No.

- Right.

So now you turn your head 90 degrees.

Now you can see me, right.

That's what you're looking for.

- That makes a lot of sense though.

- Yeah.

So you just, it's quick 90° degrees, just like that.

Quick 90° degrees.

That's all shoulder check is so it's it's almost signal, mirror, shoulder check.

Mirror, signal, shoulder, check.

Just get that in your head.

Cause that, of the road test that your most important thing.

And every time you move the vehicle sideways anytime you turn, mirror, signal, shoulder check mirror, signal, shoulder check, left and right.

So signal, mirror, signal, shoulder, check 90 degree head check.

And I, in a way you go.

So basically what I noticed when we drove over here was, you know, probably you're a bit nervous too right?

- Yeah.

Skills & Techniques That Need Some Work

- Don't be namby-pamby on the driving.

When you, when you pull out get it up to 50kph (30mph) as quickly as you can.

You've got to drive the speed limit.

You get it up to speed as quickly as you can and drive the speed limit.

Okay.

So three things I'll get you to work on.

Okay.

Get it up to speed as quickly as possible.

Don't dawdle.

Stop behind the stop line on two way stops, creep out yield and look.

Four way stops.

You can just stop at the stop line and as long as all the other traffic stopped and you can proceed.

Okay.

And then the last thing and I'll send all this to you is stopping in traffic.

Make sure that you can see the tires of the vehicle in front of you making clear contact with the pavement.

- Yeah I remember watching that.

I would have been, closer to that part.

- Yeah.

So those are the three things I want you to work on.