The Automobile Club or Romania invented a way to update the traditional driving school method for the digital generation, making it more engaging and effective.

Street View Test is the first digital driving school method that uses real life Google Street View traffic situations.

All the situations are hand picked by ACR instructors and turned into driving school questionnaires and presented in the official exam format.

Unlike the traditional illustrated method, with Street View Test students can practice traffic theory from a drivers’ point of view and, most importantly, directly on the city streets they’re going to drive on.

We started the platform with 800 questions and, right from the launch, we activated experienced drivers to help us identify more relevant places. A section of the website allows them to flag relevant Google Street View traffic situations and submit them to us, in order to turn the most relevant ones into new test questions.

The platform is continuously growing and being used as a traffic education tool in major Romanian driving schools. Now, expanding to other European countries.

The whole platform works on the website, while the communication was done via earned PR and Facebook shares made straight from the site.

The method is being implemented across Europe together with the International Automobile Federation, European Google support and national Auto Clubs – currently active in Romania and in beta stage in The Czech Republic and Latvia.

In lobby to be officially recognized by the Romanian Police.

35% increase in ACR driving school signups.

First attempt graduation rate raised by 50%.

8:26 average minutes spent on the website

Currently being implemented in the Czech Republic and Latvia and in progress to be expanded to Pan-European level

Over 130k tests solved

Circa 900 new questions formulated by the ACR instructors, based on user-submitted traffic situations.

Impressions ?

6 million impressions: prime-time TV and international media, social media mentions.

Google Creative Sandbox official pick.

FIA official pick.

Students are practicing traffic education on “Street View Test” across the entire ACR driving school network.

50% increase in traffic theory exam graduation.

“Street View Test” was the most talked about initiative in the Romanian media, in 2015.

Media and students declared it “Better, more relevant than the method used by the Romanian Police.”

“Street View Test” is the first driving school studying method that uses “Google Street View” traffic situations.

Driving school students use the website as traffic learning tool, with direct results and tracked progress. Experienced drivers can submit relevant traffic situations found directly on the “Street View” website plugin, which official instructors add to the method.

We also want student prospects to have the ACR driving school as first option. They get convinced on the website, by trying the completely new type of traffic theory practice. Pressing the “Join the ACR School” button comes naturally, at any time of the test.

We just used the Automobile Club of Romania’s and Traffic Police public statistics.

Student prospects aged 18 – 25, urban, heavy internet users and digital-oriented, who perceived the Automobile Club’s school as obsolete.

Using Google Street View as a resource, we made driving school practice engaging for young audience, bringing it to the digital environment they are familiar with. Being the first radical change in the traffic learning method in the last century, we knew the idea would get the press and social media buzz it needed, organically.

We also had the insight that experienced drivers know various complicated traffic situations around the cities. And that there’s a silent competition about who masters the street better, between drivers. So we asked them to flag those situations on the Google Street View plug-in on our website.

The “Join our driving school” tab was always present during the tests on the website.

In Romania, only 7% of driving school students get their driving license at first attempt. Most have troubles passing the theory exam.

Still, even those who pass are not fully prepared for the real roads, causing a national safety issue. According to police statistics, drivers causing most serious and fatal accidents are aged 18 – 25.

One of the causes is the inefficient learning method based on illustrated tests, unchanged for almost a century, nowadays totally disconnected from the way the digital generation studies.

ACR, the oldest driving school in the country, wanted to win back their main target: people aged 18 – 25, digital oriented, who perceived the Automobile Club’s school as obsolete and “state-owned”. Thus, they were choosing newer schools on the market instead.

A 10% increase in student sign-ups for the driving school and an image boost in the eyes of young student prospects and public opinion.