Driver's Edge, the popular driving safety course for teenagers, is back in Reno.

Over the next four days, more than 800 teens will get behind the wheel up at the Regional Public Safety Training Center.

The program pairs young drivers with professional race car drivers to show them what can really happen on the road.

"In the state of Nevada there's no defensive driving program like this," said Jeff Payne, Founder and CEO of Driver's Edge. "And you can talk 'til you're blue in the face, but until these kids get behind the wheel the don't really experience okay, that's what happens when you lose traction, okay, that's what ABS brakes do. It does two things; you get the nervous driver that's truly freaked out that all of a sudden realizes okay, I got this, the car didn't roll over didn't catch on fire. But the same is true for the cocky kids we see that think they know everything, where they're quickly humbled and they realize wow, I was only going 25 miles an hour and the car spun around on me, maybe I'm not as cool as I thought. So it's an eye-opening experience for everybody."

More than 150,000 young people have taken the free course over the last two decades, and involving parents is part of the plan.

"Bottom line, when it comes to driving on the roads, you don't know what you don't know," Payne said. "And a lot of the parents walk away going oh, I'm so glad I was here, I think I learned as much as my kid. And it also works as a bonding experience too, because parents are able to be out there with their sons and daughters and they see how they do on the exercises and they end up talking about things like drinking and driving and what to do in an emergency. So honestly I think it brings the families closer together and all we're trying to do is save lives."

Drivers Edge is able to run these programs free of charge, thanks to grants and donations, and the hope is, with some additional funding, to bring it back for another spin this fall.

You can learn more or sign up for this session's waiting list at https://driversedge.org/