Driver education and training for new drivers: moving beyond current ‘wisdom’ to new directions

Driver education and training are longstanding initiatives for novices to attain a driver license. More recently however, we demand more of such initiatives, expecting they can better prepare young novices to be safer in the early months and years of independent driving. In this chapter, we explore historical and current trends and evidence for these initiatives, both one-on-one and group-based initiatives, in the context of an established theoretical best-practice framework, the Goals for Driver Education. Beyond this, we highlight current lack of attention to driver education and training needs with current advances in driver support technologies in vehicles—both for novices but also experienced drivers. Moreover, we acknowledge the rapidly shifting climate of change towards increased vehicle automation and more livable cities. We argue the need to move beyond the current generalization that most driver education and training efforts are ineffective, to promote more nuanced successful approaches, and ways to best maximize the value of driver education and training to increase driver safety in a changing world.