What the mirrors won't tell: Instructing the blind spot check in driver training

Visually monitoring the surrounding traffic is key to safe driving. This article examines how trainee drivers (TDs) enrolled in a Swedish driving school practice checking the blind spot, i.e., the lateral field behind the car not covered by its mirrors. Using multimodal conversation analysis to examine a collection of blind spot checks (BSCs) drawn from an extended longitudinal corpus of video recorded driving sessions, we identify how visually oriented instructions are adapted to TD's driving skills as well as to local traffic demands. The findings show that although the BSC instructions are routinely embedded in a systematic “mirror routine”, numerous contingencies may force instructors to scale down the visual instructions to only include the BSC. Furthermore, it was found in line with previous studies that instructions were fewer and less detailed as the TD's driving progressed, to the point where the instructions were altogether withheld. In this mode of training, that we term “unassisted driving”, instructors would reorient their focus to noticing and correcting TD's problematic driving behaviour, drawing in different ways on their joint interactional experience of previous sessions. The findings contribute to the literature on instructions in mobile settings as well as to more general discussions of learning as a members' concern in situated interaction. • Driver training includes instructions of visual routines for surveying traffic. • Instructors embed blind spot checks in a systematic mirror routine. • Instructions are often downscaled to match students' level of skill. • Instructions may be withheld in favour of monitoring and error correction.