Test drives by veterans at the Veterans Wheelchair Games '09

The driver is comparing the digital ring with the standard hand controls he is used to:

Let's pull down the freeway and I'm accelerating on to the fast lane and I'm going to set the cruise control.

The nice thing about the ring is, with my other car I had to move my hand from here and set the cruise control on the dashboard but with the ring and the way the Prius is set up all I have to do is simply put my finger down here and the cruise control is set and I haven't moved my hands from the wheel. To be able to release it I simply touch the brake and now I'm allowing the car ahead of me to catch up and once I get back to the speed that I want to do I just simply press down again and the cruise control is set.

And for those of us that are paralyzed the cruise control is a real godsend because it takes a lot of fatigue off long distance driving. And the nice part here is even though the cruise control is set, look where my hands are. They are still at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions where I have good steering control and if I need to accelerate I can do so and then it'll fall back to the speed I had before. If someone stopped in front of me, again my hand is right here for the brake and I don't have to have it here ready to brake for the next hundred miles while I'm on cruise control.

With the normal hand control even though I have cruise control set I still have to keep my hand right here in an awkward position the whole trip. With the ring I keep my hands at the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock position even while the cruise control is operating. If I have to brake, I just use a slight movement. That makes a big difference on long trips in terms of fatigue. Because I noticed in my car my shoulder is forward all the time that I am on that cruise control because if somebody cuts in front of me I can't be doing this. Because that's the motion if someone cuts me off and I had regular hand controls what I would have to do if my hands were like this, is I had to jump like that and that is a dangereous position to be in.

Now I going to demonstrate if someone cuts in front of me and I had to make an evasive manoeuvre, here I brake , make my manoeuvre and my hands are still at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock. I don't have to go down like this and then try and turn. That's a big difference in terms of safety.