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Universal Driver's License (view source)

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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Henry Jones''': ''I didn't know you could fly a plane!''
'''Indiana Jones''': ''Fly? Yes! '''Land'''? No!''|''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]''}}
|''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]''}}
 
{{quote|"Hello and welcome to ''Flying a Light Aeroplane Without Having Had Any Formal Instruction With...''.|An unusual chat show on ''A Bit of Fry and Laurie''}}
|An unusual chat show on ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]''}}
 
In most action series/computer games, the player character or the hero has the ability to drive any vehicle they come across, be it a little Volkswagen or the biggest earth moving machine on the planet. Even if they've never seen it before, as long as the keys are in it, it's fair game for a joyride or hasty escape.
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
 
* Subverted in Part 3 of ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'': with both the pilot and copilot of a plane taken out, Joseph declares he can fly it because he knows how to fly a propeller plane. Kakyoin then yells, "This is a ''jet!''" The plane crashes moments later.
** Joseph tells Jojo while flying the plane: "I've crashed three planes. Ever met someone who's done that?" A nonplussed Jojo replies [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"I'm never flying with you again."]]
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== Comics ==
 
* ''[[Tintin]]'' is the king of this trope. He's too sickeningly talented for words.
** His main weakness seems to be tanks, which he drives ''somewhat'' more awkwardly.
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== Film ==
 
* The list of varied vehicles [[James Bond]] has ''personally'' used throughout his movies is stunning. Cars, trucks, a fire engine, motorcycles, tanks, snowmobiles, motorboats, hovercraft, gyrocopters, light aircraft, fighter jets, submarines, a [[I Want My Jetpack|jetpack]] and even a space shuttle. The training course for double-0 agents must have one heck of a driver's exam.
* Parodied in ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'': The opening montage states that Nicholas Angel took and excelled in several courses beyond the standard police skillset, including advanced driving (cut to Angel taking a car through a controlled skid-stop)) and advanced ''cycling'' (cut to Angel taking a ''bike'' through a controlled skid-stop).
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== Literature ==
 
* Averted and parodied in ''[[Animorphs]]''. At one point, on a whim, they decide to steal a tank off this train they were investigating. Marco declares he should drive, [[I Know Mortal Kombat|as he plays tank sims a lot]], but really doesn't expect to get anywhere... and then is shocked to find the controls so well labeled that even a little kid could drive it. "Aren't they even worried that someone could steal these things?!" "Apparently not." [[Drives Like Crazy|They proceed to nearly go off a cliff, drive on the wrong side of a highway and (intentionally) crush their alien infested evil vice principal's house]].
** In a similar vein, in a much earlier book, Marco attempts to drive a car because he's done it in a video game. His driving prompts Jake to say "Do you hate trash cans? Is that your problem? Do you just HATE TRASH CANS?!"
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* Averted in [[Harry Turtledove]]'s Timeline-191 series. When Lucien Gaultier proudly shows his daughter Nicole his brand-new Chevrolet, she absoultely insists on driving it. Once she gets behind the wheel, she can't even turn it on, because the controls were nothing like her husband's Ford.
 
== Live -Action TV ==
 
* In ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'', Lucas (the Blue Ranger) explicitly has this as a knack: "Lucas can drive anything." However, he got into a little trouble when he was caught speeding and tried to show his 31st Century driver's license to a 21st Century cop.
** For that matter, it's amazing that everybody who becomes a Power Ranger automatically knows how to pilot their Zord.
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== Radio ==
 
* Subverted in the ''National Lampoon Radio Hour'' sketch "Land A Million", a game show where the contestant was placed aboard a 747 loaded with 30 minutes of fuel, a million dollars in cash, and a ton of TNT. The pilot then bailed out, and the contestant had to get instructions on how to land by answering typical game-show questions.
 
== Tabletop Games ==
 
* ''[[GURPS]]'' has assorted "Vehicle Skills", which requires the PC to buy separate skills for each vehicle type, but also has "Drive!", which works like the Universal Driver's License and is only recommended for use in "cinematic" games.
* This is the case in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Role-Playing Game]] (at least, in the Saga Edition). Any character is assumed to be able to at least operate any vehicle, no matter how exotic, although training is available to learn special piloting abilities and maneuvers. The game explains that Star Wars vehicles have fairly standardized controls. A bit of a stretch if one compares, say, a speeder bike to a starship—notstarship — not to mention any of the more unusual vehicles, like those with legs.
* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' both subverts this trope and plays it straight. There are separate skills for different kinds of vehicles. It's easier to fly a plane if you don't know how to fly a plane but do know how to drive; it's much easier if you actually have some flying experience. But then, from 3rd edition, "for convenience, Shadowrun assumes that characters can automatically accomplish basic vehicle maneuvers, such as... taking the old helicopter for a little sightseeing hop." So apparently your characters do have a universal driver's license but then forget everything when asked to do something more challenging than moving and stopping.
* ''[[Time Master]]'' used the universal drivers license. If you were originally from 1920's Chicago and learned to drive a Model T Ford, you could use the same skill roll to drive a late 20th century 18 wheeler, a 30th century hovercraft or a 45th century mecha. Possibly all in the same scenario, this was a time travel game after all.
* The ''[[Hero System]]'' has Transport Familiarity, which has catagoriescategories covering the basics of everything from riding horseback to piloting warp-driven starships. The catch is, having all the possible catagoriescategories plus Combat Driving, Combat Piloting, and Riding can and will set you back quite a considerable chunk of points. Star Hero and The Ultimate Skill also expand on the basic list if the GM choseschooses to use the optional catagoriescategories in game.
 
== Video Games ==
 
* ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'' [[Playing with a Trope|plays with this trope]]. You, as the gamer, need a little training to handle vehicles like tanks and helicopters, but once you get the hang of it you can use ''any'' enemy vehicles lying around, (no matter which character you are currently controlling and no matter whether or not that ''character itself'' has any training for it). In certain missions, if you manage get your hands on an anti-aircraft ''Shilka'', it's pretty much a [[Lightning Bruiser]] that can single-handedly win the mission. Because of its four [[Gatling Good|gatling cannons]] that can fire on full-automatic to take out '''anything''' the game throws at you - infantry, RPG soldiers, vehicles, tanks, and even helicopters, which you can catch on radar from an unbelievable distance. Some missions will stop you from mounting certain vehicles (especially helicopters) to avoid this trope.
* The various protagonists of the ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' series seem to be able to drive anything from the standard cars and motorcycles, to boats, to tanks, to helicopters. ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' introduces airplanes as available vehicles; the [[Player Character]] must complete a training course before he can ''legally'' fly those, but is still ''perfectly capable'' of flying them before that if he sneaks into an airport and hijacks one.
** Not only can Carl Johnson pilot airplanes perfectly the first time he clambers into the cockpit, he also learns how to fly a Harrier jet just as fast (all of his previous experience likely being little more than a P-51, an Apache, and a Learjet) and learn how to properly operate all of the weapons systems well enough to defeat several experienced pilots in a dogfight and destroy boats sitting in a lake with heat-seakingseeking missiles.
** In ''The Ballad Of Gay Tony'', it's noted that Luis took a two-week piloting class once and the license can be seen.
*** Likewise, the first time Niko gets in a helicopter, he remarks "I haven't flown one of these since the war!", which is odd, considering he was an infantryman. There is no explanation given for Johnny's piloting skills in ''The Lost and Damned''.
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* [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in ''[[PlanetSide]]'', where you need certifications in order to use vehicles in addition to weapons and other equipment. Acquiring the certs in question simply requires having a high enough Battle Rank and cert points free and then registering them at a cert terminal, suggesting a case of [[Instant Expert]], but it could be said that characters train in the VR stations for a while before getting their certifications.
* In ''[[Battlezone (1998 video game)|Battlezone 1998]] II'', you (Lt. Cooke) can pilot almost any vehicle. Salvage vehicles, floating missile tanks, walkers, ''morphing alien tanks'', and regular tracked tanks. However, floating tow trucks and artillery seems to baffle Lt. Cooke, as you cannot pilot them.
 
 
== Webcomic ==
 
* Lampshaded in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'': "I speak warship very fluently."
 
== Web Original ==
 
* Grif from ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' is the Red team's designated vehicle operator. Apparently, this includes [[Dynamic Entry|crashing jeeps through walls]] and [[Improbable Piloting Skills|flying aerial dropships]].
 
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[DuckTales (1987)|DuckTales]]'', Launchpad McQuack can intuit how to operate any flying vehicle, from planes and helicopters to alien space ships and whatever invention [[Mr. Fixit|Gyro Gearloose]] has cobbled together. But while he can ''fly'' anything (kinda), ''landing'' is another matter entirely: his personal [[Catch Phrase]] is "[[Captain Crash|If it's got wings, I can crash it.]]"▼
 
▲* In ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'', Launchpad McQuack can intuit how to operate any flying vehicle, from planes and helicopters to alien space ships and whatever invention [[Mr. Fixit|Gyro Gearloose]] has cobbled together. But while he can ''fly'' anything (kinda), ''landing'' is another matter entirely: his personal [[Catch Phrase]] is "[[Captain Crash|If it's got wings, I can crash it.]]"
** Note that this ability (which carried over to ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'') is pretty much Launchpad's. Darkwing himself has difficulties when in a cockpit; the only time he's flown the Thunderquack without Launchpad involve either autopilot or immediate demolition.
* Lampshaded hilariously in ''[[Justice League]]''. Flash, who's been put in charge of the vehicle in question, explains it best:
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== Real Life ==
 
* Anyone capable of [[Driving Stick]] could ''probably'' muddle through behind the wheel of a bus or light truck if they absolutely had to.
** As shown in ''[[Top Gear]]'''s episode where the three drive trucks. They are a bit puzzled by the half-gears, and uphill starts represent a significant problem, but by and large they manage to make the things go.
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*** In the ''[[Top Gear]]'' 1940s race Clarkson wasn't allowed to drive the A1 ''Tornado'' steam engine on the main line since a license is needed to do that. And Hammond's Vincent Black Shadow bike broke down because he left the reserve fuel tank tap open and clogged the carburetor.
**** Hammond also damaged his Minsk bike in the Vietnam special and his Opel car in the Botswana challenge by driving them in water, but all of these were more a result of his inattention and fatigue from hours of driving in inhospitable weather (as well as poor judgment in the last case) than by a lack of technical ability typified in the other examples of the trope. Just like forgetting your gas cap on your roof of your Caravan in the middle of a road trip doesn't mean you don't know how to drive a van.
* Perennial [[Top Gear]] guest Sabine Schmitz is known as the Queen of the Ring for being able to drive any and everything around the Nürburgring[[w:Nürburgring|Nürburgring]] (the world's most demanding racecourse/public road located in Germany) in record time. Was demonstrated in one Top Gear segment by driving a stock Ford Transit diesel commercial van around in a time that most average drivers struggle in their expensive sports cars. In addition to this she is a professional racing driver in both open and stock car classes, is the host of her own Top Gear-esque motoring show (D-Motor) which has her participating in a wide range of motoring stunts, she holds a pilots license, owns her own helicopter and finally she is an accomplished equestrian demonstrated by beating a motor bike in an off road race around aforementioned NürburgringNürburgring.
* ''[[Jay Leno's Garage]]'' usually features Jay showing how to operate a vintage car and more often than not it would not be immediately obvious to somebody used to modern standard controls. A common phrase to hear is something like "And ''this'' is your heater/brake/magneto/indicator... you need to pump that up every ten minutes or the whole thing goes up in smoke". Then there's the pre-drive checks that have to be done on many older cars and motorbikes (like getting steam up in the Stanley Steamer).
** In one instance someone asked him how much about the Vincent motorcycle he was writing. The talk show host demonstrated his knowledge by opening up the oil tank and dipping a finger in it. This would cause severe burns in most vehicles after use, but Leno knew the oil in the Vincent would be at about room temperature, even after a long ride.
* A cool moment for [[Iron Maiden]]'s [[Bruce Dickinson]] (certified to fly Boeing 757s) was showing on TV that he ''could'' land the NASA Space Shuttle simulator (with a little verbal co-piloting from an expert, but still pretty impressive).
** Indeed. It should be noted that a Space Shuttle doesn't so much "land" as it "plummets to earth in a (hopefully) semi-controlled manner". Different from a Boeing 757 in that you can't abort a landing and climb again if you screw it up the first time in a Space Shuttle. You're dead.
* Chris Barrie hosted a similar Discovery channelChannel program, but unlike Bruce couldn't land the Zeppelin airship (modern, not Hindenburg-era) simulator without smacking into the mooring mast quite hard. In another program he showed just how hard it is to ride a police motorbike round the police testing course, wobbling around and toppling over since all the emergency kit makes such bikes very top-heavy. He could ride an old Brough Superior (belt-drive gears and all) with no problem though.
* In season 3 of ''[[Ice Road Truckers]]'' Alex got into trouble because he could not handle the gear shift on his truck. He has driven trucks for decades but was not familiar with the setup in the truck he was given to drive and would shift to the wrong gear.
** He also had problems with putting on tire chains though it should have been trivial to someone with his experience. He rarely had a need for them on the roads and ice roads he normally drove on.
* In ''[[Generation Kill]]'', Evan Wright notes that the driver in the team he was embedded in, Corporal Person, wasn't licensed to drive their Humvee. This note was part of a list used for examples in explaining the idea that it's pretty hard to "prepare" for war, that a lot of little things you just can't do anything about will start adding up. Presumably, this was more of a formality fallen by the wayside because of need, since quite a few of the drivers were similarly unlicensed (members of their battalion don't normally operate in vehicles out in the open) and Person jokes at one point that their time spent in the Humvee should qualify him.
** Humvees are automatic transmission, so it wouldn't be hard. It's most likely that he was simply never given the formal training to indicate that he was qualified for that specific military vehicle.
** Someone who had only driven civilian cars and SUVs might find himself at a loss for how to start the Humvee, as the starter system makes perfect sense only AFTER''after'' it is explained to you. Incidentally, if anyone sends you to get keys to the humvee, unless there's a padlock involved somewhere, they're messing with you.
** If registered in European countries, Humvee is legally a truck ("motorized vehicle over 3500kgs loaded weight") and can be driven by anyone holding a truck license. Controls are not different from a 4x4 truck anyway. Some older military trucks are much more demanding - see the [[wikipedia:ZIL 131|Soviet ZIL-131]]: 6x6 transmission, 5-gear main gearbox (out of which 1st is the reduction gear, normally the 2nd is used to start) multiplied by 2-gear transfer case, limited slip differentials actuated by pneumatic controls from the dashboard, tire pressure controlled from the dashboard, all controls hard as set in concrete... [[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|in Soviet Russia the truck drove you]] more than you drove it.
** The US Army M35 "Deuce and a half" truck similarly has some particular oddities about it, such as a gear shifter that LOOKED like the shifter in a normal car, but had the gears in all the wrong order. The shift pattern ''reverses itself'' halfway through. Going from 1st to 2nd to 3rd is a normal down-up-down motion, but going from 3rd to 4th is not back up again, it's over and ''down'' with 5th being up. Fortunately, it is typically "Army Proofed" by having the shifting positions posted on a metal plate riveted to the dashboard. You still drive the vehicle primarily with brute violence and foul language. Like the Humvee, it's got a starter system that is counter-intuitive to people used to keys, and there's no power assist for any of the steering or shifting. Hope you like grabbing big heaping handfuls of steering wheel and stomping on the clutch like it slept with your wife.
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* Drivers who drive on the left hand side of the road (Britons, Australians, Japanese, Indians) and people who drive on the right hand side of the road (Americans, Canadians, Continental Europeans, Chinese) use the same fundamental driving skills but in a different manner. Which gets hilarious when you suddenly think you're driving on the wrong side of the road, reach on the wrong side for the gear stick if driving a manual transmission from the other side, or best of all, look the wrong way at intersections for oncoming traffic.
* The US Army is engaging in a standardization program so that most of their vehicles can be operated by one interface. Which happens to be a [[Xbox]] controller. [http://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/05/us-army-using-xbox-360-controller-in-future-combat-systems-tests/ Link]
** At the moment the man-portable drone systems are controlled by Xbox controller, while the Humvee-deployed ones are controlled by laptop/PS3 controller. There are also iPhone-controlled devices that the militaryismilitary is prototyping, in an effort to invoke this trope. It helps that the control scheme is dead simple and takes 5 minutes at most to be proficient. And that's just the stuff that they'll tell you about.
* Surprise! Indy Jones was quite correct. It's easy to fly a (small) plane, and hard to land. It's actually a LOT''lot'' easier to fly a small plane in a straight line, than to drive a car in traffic. Landing, on the other hand, involves technical precision, which requires both knowledge of the numbers (principally airspeed and rate of descent) for the particular plane, and practice, since the numbers can quickly get out of hand without a smooth hand on the controls.
* Played kind of straight in an episode of Mythbusters''[[MythBusters]]'', in which both of the main hosts were able to land a commercial jet safely in a simulator by following instructions over a radio from a professional air-traffic controller, whereas they had crashed the plane hilariously several times before when they attempted it on their own. However, it was stated on the show that the sequence of events that would have to happen to make something like that necessary is so unlikely that it has never actually happened.
 
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Vehicle Tropes]]
[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Universal Driver's License{{PAGENAME}}]]
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