Panoz to Provide Premium Behind-the-Wheel Instruction for SAFEDRIVE Students
DULUTH, Ga., Jan. 30 -- SAFEDRIVE technologies, Inc., the company that's revolutionizing driver training and education, today announced a partnership with Panoz Racing School that will provide a premium driver training option for students in the metro Atlanta area. SAFEDRIVE better prepares teen drivers with unique, state-of-the-art technology, including an advanced simulator similar to those used to train pilots. Panoz operates the popular and well-known Audi Driving Experience at Road Atlanta. "Our partnership raises the bar in driver education by offering a complete package," said Carey Odum, SAFEDRIVE's director of southeast operations, located in Duluth. "Combined with our STARTT(TM) program, which gives teens a solid foundation through classroom, scanning and simulator training, this specialized course will help us put better prepared drivers on the road." Based in Braselton, Ga., Panoz is the only official North American provider of the famed Audi Driving Experience, designed to enhance a student's skill, confidence and safety while driving in any situation. Each session is conducted at Road Atlanta and gives students hands-on experience that they don't receive in regular behind-the-wheel training, including skid control and recovery, threshold braking techniques and precision driving. "The Audi Driving Experience teaches students to maneuver in situations like accident avoidance, skidding and hydroplaning that you couldn't safely teach on the open road," Odum explained. "SAFEDRIVE students learn about these situations in our classroom and then experience them in our simulator, but this takes it one step further. This program teaches students to handle in a real car what they've experienced in the simulator, with a professional instructor alongside them." In-car instruction is the final step in SAFEDRIVE's 45-hour STARTT-2- Finish program, which includes 39.5 classroom hours and 6 hours behind the wheel. As students master road rules and basic skills in computer-based and interactive classroom training, they drive the simulator from an authentic vehicle cockpit that acts and reacts as a real car would, experiencing "real- life" scenarios, such as rain- or snow-slicked roads, fog and tire blowouts. Students then drive a real vehicle. Black & Lance Driving Academy provides behind-the-wheel training in Duluth. For an additional fee, parents can add the premium driver training option, or choose it instead of traditional behind-the-wheel component. The Ultimate option includes SAFEDRIVE's STARTT-2-Finish, traditional behind-the-wheel training and the "Audi Driving Experience." "We have created a special team approach to driver education," said Geoff Lee, president and general manager of the Audi Driving Experience. "Combining SAFEDRIVE's experts in classroom theory and simulation and the Audi Driving Experience's world-class instructors, we are meeting Georgia's need for affordable and effective driver education." Under the partnership, students who approach Panoz for driving instruction but lack classroom instruction will complete the SAFEDRIVE STARTT program before getting behind the wheel. "Together we have an incredible program that, as far as we know, doesn't exist anywhere else," Odum said. "We hope to use our partnership here in the Atlanta area as a prototype to take to other SAFEDRIVE and Panoz locations." SAFEDRIVE founder and chief executive Jim Dowdell says the partnership is central to the company's goal, "to give teens real experience to draw from when they're on the road and thus, we hope, reduce the staggering number of teen fatalities and injuries in auto accidents," he said. "I think this partnership will help us put better prepared teen drivers on the road." About SAFEDRIVE technologies SAFEDRIVE technologies, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based driver training and education company with centers in Duluth, Ga., and Monroeville, Pa., employs state-of-the-art technology to better train student drivers and help reduce the staggering number of teen fatalities and injuries in auto accidents. The three-year-old company is revolutionizing driver training with the first major innovation since World War II. For information, including prices and class schedules, call 678-924-7489.