It all started with the words, "I'm driving, so why don't we all go get it?" An event called a driving test that most Japanese would have experienced, at least in Japan. Unlike Japan, there are no special courses or provisional license exams in the United States, and you can get a license in about half a day if you pass the academic test and the practical test. It makes me think that if you are driving in Japan, you will be able to pass it with some study. However, my planned "driver's license acquisition tour" had unexpected consequences.

Cars are not always available at the license examination venue in the United States, and candidates must bring their own. If a Japanese student drives by himself / herself, he / she will rent a car and go to obtain a license within the expiration date of the international driver's license (within 3 months after coming to the United States in Illinois). On the other hand, if the expiration date has passed, or if you do not have an international driver's license (in this case), you will need to have a licensed person take you to the site. In addition, the number of rental cars has temporarily decreased due to the spread of the new coronavirus, and it is difficult to rent a car. Therefore, this time I decided to use the service (I think it is better to enter a specific name) to rent a car through personal communication through the app, which I already had a driver's license.

However, on the morning of the tour, the gears had already begun to go crazy when I rented a car. The owner of the car does not appear even at the appointed time. Americans are generally loose in time, but after 40 minutes they haven't heard anything and haven't responded to phone calls or emails. When I contacted support, it turned out that I was slammed. At one point, the tour was in danger of being canceled, but I managed to make full use of my poor English and my suspicious listening skills, and managed to get over the phone to support and succeed in getting another car ready on the day. But the car was a Tesla electric car that no one had ever driven. This later annoyed driver's license test takers.

The driver's license test will be taken at the Schaumburg Driver's License Center (see Living Toko.com), which many Japanese visit to take the test. As with the prior information, the number of people was extremely high, but surprisingly, the document procedures and the written test flowed smoothly, and I was able to proceed to the practical test in about two and a half hours. Partly because of my threat, I had studied a lot in advance, so all of them passed the written exam. However, if you are not accustomed to English, it seems that some study is necessary.

The general flow of the practical test is to drive on the right lane of a large public road around the driver's license center, enter a path on the way, and take a U-turn or roadside parking test. When I took the exam (one year ago), I got a big deduction because I wasn't squeezed by the roadside parking, and I got a cold sweat. Was there. However, as mentioned above, Tesla's special mechanism and the whims of the examiner (?) Distressed me from here.

Although Tesla is an AT car, there is no "creep" like Japanese cars, so it may be natural, but since it is driven by a motor, the speed is determined by the degree of depression of the accelerator. Therefore, although the first examinee passed the exam, he was overspeeding considerably probably because he was stepping on the accelerator with a Japanese feeling, and he received a "complaint". In addition, Tesla is designed to slow down rapidly when you take your foot off the accelerator. The second test taker challenged without being enough for that, so he had to repeatedly "suddenly brake", received a "sermon" after taking the test, and even failed. From this point on, it seemed that the examiner's impression of us was extremely bad.

It seems that the third and fourth people tried a cautious actual vehicle based on the failure of the two people. I don't know if the third person is driving or not, but fortunately the examiner made a "chombo" to open the door while trying to open the window, so he passed without any big comment. I remember that the last fourth person started with "extremely" careful driving, even from our point of view. I went around the road in the facility at a speed that could be called creep, and hit the stone bridge many times before making a right turn until the car was completely gone. As a result, the car returned through a course that was clearly shorter than usual, perhaps because the examiner couldn't wait because the closing time was approaching. I thought, "I passed because it ended early," but it seems that it was a failure after the evaluation was discontinued in the middle, like a throat boasting tournament. As a result, this driver's license acquisition tour ended in a disastrous result with a passing rate of 50%.

If there is a reflection on this tour, sudden accelerator and sudden braking are strictly prohibited, the speed limit must not be exceeded but it must be insufficient, and the Japanese car that I am accustomed to (even if it is not a Japanese car) I think it's okay if it's an ordinary car, but lol) I think you should borrow it and go to the test. If I had to rent a car that I wasn't used to, I thought it would be necessary to practice enough before the test. However, the tour itself was meaningful to me in that we were able to evaluate each other's driving and launch after the test. Hopefully everyone will pass next time.