From CNN from a few days ago

Drivers may get insurance breaks for playing computer games

Could playing computer games turn people over 50 into better drivers? One insurer wants to find out.

It's a big industry which gets too much disapproval by those who don't understand the pleasures and torments of sitting on your arse for three weeks solid and shouting at your television with your remote control in hand. But it can have enormous benefits as well as disadvantages - not only can you learn to fly real planes but it might simply help your driving too. Driving simulators in turn might help your insurance to fall ...

Quote :

NEW YORK (AP) -- Could playing computer games enhance mental agility enough to turn people over 50 into better drivers? Allstate Corp. wants to find out, and if the answer is yes, it might offer insurance discounts to people who play the games.
Could playing computer games turn people over 50 into better drivers? One insurer wants to find out.

Under a new pilot program called InSight, Allstate will offer specialized computer games to 100,000 customers in Pennsylvania aged 50 to 75. The games' developer, San Francisco-based Posit Science, will track the total number of hours these drivers play.

Then the group's accident rates will be compared to a control group of people who do not play the games.

The games are not all specific to driving. They're designed to reverse age-related cognitive decline and improve visual alertness.

For example, a game called "Jewel Diver" has players keep track of underwater jewels that pop up on the screen for a moment before they are hidden under fish swimming around. When the fish stop moving, players click on the fish hiding the jewel. It's like Three Card Monte but without the cheating. Over time, the game gets more complicated as more fish appear on the screen.

Reminds me of an arcade game 'Popcycle' where you had to get on a real bike and pedal a screen one through the air (like Mary Poppins ?), popping big red balloons in the process. That game was the best workout I used to have back then in the mid nineties.

Quote :

While people their 50s and 60s have the lowest accident rates of all drivers, at some point in the mid-60s this rate starts to climb again, Warden said. He hopes the brain fitness software can show "significant benefits here -- beyond dollars and cents".

CNN

I'm telling you they're the future.