When the Driving Disappears

Why commentary must lead to Stage 4 — where driving frees the mind for the mission

Last issue I wrote extensively about commentary driving — what it is, why it works, and why so many programs underuse it.

This week I want to make something clear.

Commentary driving was never the goal.

It is a tool. A method. A bridge. And if it does not move the driver toward the highest level of competence, then its value is limited.

That highest level is where too many drivers — and too many programs — fail to arrive. This issue is about why that happens, what it looks like when a driver finally gets there, and what it means for everyone who operates an emergency vehicle for a living.

The Driver Who Couldn't Pass a Gas Station

A recruit came back to me after completing post-Ontario Police College training. He had been through a divided attention exercise — a commentary drive with an added layer. As he drove and called out hazards, he also had to tell me the price of gas at every station we passed.

If he missed one, we went back. Or we talked about why he missed it.

The answer was almost always the same: a driving decision had been required at the exact moment we passed the viewing position for the price board. The driving task had taken priority and the secondary task had dropped out entirely. That was the point of the exercise — to make cognitive load visible in real time.

A few weeks later he came back and said:

He was not complaining. Not really. He was describing something that had happened without his permission.

The habit had embedded itself. On his commute. On patrol. In ordinary driving that nobody was grading.

That is Stage 4. Not what happens in a training session. What happens after — when the correct behaviour becomes the default behaviour and the driver can no longer turn it off.

 The Four Stages of Competency

Most instructors know this model. Fewer build their training around it deliberately. Applied to emergency vehicle operations, the four stages look like this:

Stage 1: Unconscious Incompetence

The driver does not know what they do not know. They may believe they are scanning properly, managing space well, and anticipating hazards. They are often wrong — and unaware of it.

Common blind spots at this stage include:

–    Poor mirror habits

–    Short visual lead time

–    Weak lane positioning

–    Target fixation

–    Late braking

–    Poor space management

This stage is common in novice drivers. It is also common in experienced drivers who have never been meaningfully corrected. Time behind the wheel does not automatically create skill. Sometimes it only reinforces weakness.

Stage 2: Conscious Incompetence

The blind spots become visible. The driver begins to recognize what they have been missing — looking too close, reacting too late, carrying unnecessary speed, failing to read developing hazards.

This stage can bruise confidence. Good. Real learning often begins when false confidence ends. The driver who arrives at Stage 2 is closer to improvement than the one still sitting comfortably in Stage 1.

Stage 3: Conscious Competence

The driver now understands what is expected and can perform to a solid standard — with deliberate effort. They can:

–    Scan properly and consistently

–    Identify developing hazards early

–    Create and maintain space

–    Manage speed with intention

–    Choose better road position

But it still requires concentration. It is not yet habit. And when distraction, pressure, fatigue, or competing tasks appear — as they always do in emergency driving — many drivers at Stage 3 fall back into old patterns.

Stage 3 is progress. It is not the finish line.

Stage 4: Unconscious Competence

This is where advanced driving must live. Correct behaviours have become reliable habits. The driver no longer consciously reminds themselves to scan ahead, preserve options, adjust speed early, or manage space continuously.

It is simply happening.

Not because they are careless. Because they are trained. Because repetition turned correct performance into default performance.

 Why Stage 4 Matters in Emergency Services

When operating an emergency vehicle, driving is only part of the task. The operator may simultaneously need to manage:

–    Radio traffic and updates

–    Route changes in real time

–    Shifting urgency and risk assessment

–    Public safety decisions

–    Suspect or patient information

–    Legal thresholds and authority

–    Tactical arrival planning

–    Scene readiness and situational awareness

This is where the work of author Daniel Kahneman becomes directly relevant. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman describes two modes of thought. System 1 is fast, automatic, and instinctive — it operates below conscious awareness. System 2 is slow, deliberate, and effortful — it handles complex decisions that require focused attention.

In emergency vehicle operations, the goal is clear: driving must become System 1 so that System 2 remains available for the mission.

Driving is the platform. The job is the mission.

If the platform still demands conscious effort — if the driver is actively thinking about scanning, spacing, and speed management — then System 2 is already occupied before the operational task even begins. The operator arrives at the scene depleted, or makes decisions enroute that should have been made more carefully.

That is not a vehicle handling problem. That is a cognitive load problem. And it begins long before any collision occurs.

  Where Commentary Driving Truly Fits

This is why the connection between commentary driving and the four stages matters so much — and why I spent an entire issue on commentary before arriving here.

Used properly, commentary driving:

–    Exposes Stage 1 — the driver hears what they are missing when they cannot name what they see

–    Guides the student through Stage 2 — making the gaps conscious and specific

–    Builds discipline in Stage 3 — the verbalization creates deliberate practice

–    Creates the pathway to Stage 4 — repeated correct performance eventually becomes automatic

The progression looks like this in practice. Early in training, the student is narrating:

–    Pedestrian near the curb edge - edging away

–    Brake lights three vehicles ahead – coming off the throttle

–    Car merging on my side - Open lane to the left

–    Stale green light — finding the point of no return

–    Vehicle waiting at the side street — cover the brake

Later, they say less. Because they are already acting on what they see. The words were never the prize. The habit was.

 The Real Challenge for Instructors

Here is the uncomfortable truth most training programs do not talk about openly: a single course rarely creates Stage 4.

In a typical training block, instructors can:

–    Introduce concepts and frameworks

–    Correct specific faults

–    Demonstrate a higher standard

–    Build momentum and motivation

–    Plant seeds that may take time to grow

But lasting improvement — the kind that survives shift work, fatigue, high-pressure calls, and the accumulated habits of daily driving — happens after the course. It happens in the miles that nobody is watching.

The divided attention exercise works precisely because it reaches beyond the training session. The recruit who cannot pass a gas station without reading the price has taken something out of the classroom and into real life. The exercise gave him a cue he could not ignore. Every gas station became a reminder.

That changes what an instructor's job actually is. It is not only to teach skills. It is to install habits that continue to develop after the student drives away.

It is to convince the operator that commentary driving — divided attention, hazard identification, deliberate practice — is worth doing on patrol, on the commute home, and during every ordinary mile that nobody is grading.

Because those quiet repetitions are what eventually move a driver from Stage 3 to Stage 4. And Stage 4 is what keeps them safe when it matters most.

 A Final Word on Kahneman

Thinking, Fast and Slow is not a driving book. But its implications for driver training are significant and largely unexplored in our field.

Kahneman's central insight — that human cognition operates on two tracks, one fast and automatic, one slow and deliberate — maps almost perfectly onto what we are trying to achieve in emergency vehicle operations training.

We want steering, scanning, spacing, and speed management to become System 1. Reliable. Automatic. Invisible.

We want route decisions, risk assessment, pursuit continuation, and tactical thinking to remain System 2. Deliberate. Considered. Conscious.

The danger is not that operators drive too fast. The danger is that they arrive at high-stakes decisions with System 2 already exhausted — because the driving itself was still requiring conscious effort.

Commentary driving, the four stages, divided attention exercises — all of it is in service of the same goal: freeing the mind to do the job by making the driving automatic.

  Final Thought

Many people believe experience creates expertise. Sometimes it does. Sometimes experience only repeats error — and the driver who has been doing it wrong for twenty years simply does it wrong with more confidence.

That is why structured training matters. That is why commentary driving, properly understood and deliberately progressed, is one of the most important tools we have.

Not because it teaches people to talk. But because it gives them a pathway — through the four stages, through divided attention, through deliberate practice — to automatic performance when it matters most.

The driving disappears. The mission remains.

Until next time — stay safe out there. 

Hugh

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Hugh Anderson EVOC Trainer | Author of Emergency Vehicle Operation Instruction: 5 Steps to Enhancing Your EVOC Training Grab the book on Amazon