Virtual Road Trips

This summer why not go on that huge cross-country road-trip that you've always dreamed of undertaking? The great American Road Trip is a call to freedom. It is a chance to craft your own adventure while witnessing the vast beauty and the diversity of landscapes that America has to offer. Whether you crave the thrill of the Pacific Coast Highway or the charm of Route 66, a road-trip promises you the experience of a lifetime.

Alternatively you could avoid the unimaginable drudgery of endless hours of driving by staying at home and following the America - Road Trip Simulator instead. Simply open up a beer, lie back on your comfortable couch and take a virtual journey across America all from the comfort of your own home.

The 'America - Road Trip Simulator' styles itself as a 'serendipitous journey unfolding at your own pace'. Open it up and it will take you on a real-time simulated trip across the United States. The simulator uses a number of Windows 95 styled windows to provide you with information about the progress of your virtual road-trip. 

One of these windows provides you with a live animated map of the current location of your virtual vehicle. Other windows allow you to listen to a local radio station, view an image of your location from Mapillary, view Wikipedia articles of nearby points of interest, read local news stories, find nearby cafes and restaurants and view local classifieds from Craigslist. You can also open up a status window which provides you with a little data on your great American road-trip (currently I have been travelling for 46 minutes, have driven 36 miles and have visited only 1 state).

If the thought of traveling virtually across the whole of the United States feels a little too challenging then why not try a smaller virtual journey instead? If you haven't got the time (or inclination) to explore the whole country then why not take a little local drive around a small town on Virtual World? 

In this virtual world a number of virtual self-driving cars drive around navigating a virtual town, while trying not to collide with each other. You can use the drop-down menu to select a number of destinations for your vehicle. If you click on the steering wheel icon then you can take control of the car. This allows you to steer the car and to control the car's acceleration and brakes (on my laptop the arrow keys are the control keys).