Update: Drivers with hemianopia do worse in driving simulator

A group of Harvard researchers published a report that persons with hemianopia performed worse in a diving simulator than normally sighted persons.

Specifically, the persons with hemianopia had difficulty detecting pedestrians on their blind side. This is often the stated concern about letting persons with hemianopia drive - they will have trouble seeing traffic and pedestrians on their blind side.

In contrast, the study published in February 2009 was a "real world" test, where persons were actually taken out on the road in a using a dual-brake vehicle and monitored by a certified driving rehabilitation specialist.

The two studies are not directly comparable, in that the methodologies are strikingly different. However, we can attempt to make reconcile the apparently conflicting results.

The new study states that drivers with hemianopia are not as good as normally-sighted drivers. The real-world study says that they are good enough.