Autonomous vehicles for Independent people
By: David Banes
Tags: Innovation, Autonomous Vehicles, Technologyforall, Inclusion, Disability

Autonomous Delivery Drone in Action in Milton Keynes

Living independently has many components, one of the ones most taken for granted is freedom of movement, access to independent mobility is a great enabler for people with a disability in seeking access to education, employment and in daily life. Accessible and Inclusive public transport, along with usable vehicles for personal use have been a considerable barrier for many for decades.

New technologies are offering new opportunities for increased mobility, artificial intelligence, internet of things and augmented reality are all enhancing transport networks, but the development of autonomous vehicles may deliver the greatest impact of all.

Some forms of autonomous vehicles are already appearing in our communities. In the streets around my home small white robots have begun to appear. Initially surrounded by locals taking photos, after a few weeks they have just become part of the scenery as they trundle between supermarkets and homes, crossing roads, avoiding pedestrians and delivering 2 large bags of shopping to a customer at a time. During our local lockdown as a result of Covid-19 they have proven to be a valuable contribution to helping those with disabilities or who are aging to get some of the most important supplies they need including fresh meat and vegetables.

The technology that drives these robots or drones, mostly uses sidewalks and pavements to travel along, the same routes that people with a disability using a wheelchair might equally choose. The routing, sensors and speed of the drones is very similar to that of a wheelchair user moving between community resources and their home, from a technical perspective there seems to be little to prevent the underlying technology being applied to autonomous driving of a wheelchair or mobility buggy in the near future. The semi-autonomous mobility aids have the additional advantage of having a human driver who can override the digital driver at any point. Such technologies, choosing accessible and safe routes, without the physical exertion of controlling a chair have great advantages for people with physical disabilities.

If you wonder how long it may take for these to be available, it is worth knowing that such devices are already being implemented in airports to help passengers with a mobility need to move between the departures hall and individual gates. If drones are mapping the sidewalks, and chairs are being tested we can expect to see these widely available in closed settings (such as theme parks or museums) before moving into the wild!

But of course, independent travel needs to range much more widely than the streets of a housing estate. Travel between towns and across a country remains challenging to many with disabilities and often reflects dependency on others to provide transport, either as a friend or through public transport. Autonomous vehicles in the form of self-driving cars may provide a solution to this challenge. Often, when these technologies are discussed, the suggestion is made that this is something for the future, in the realms of science fiction and detracting from the need for traditional transport to be made accessible. But disruptive technologies have a habit of arriving suddenly and becoming a part of daily lives overnight. The news that Waymo has set up driverless cars in three cities in Phoenix should be seen not as a shock, but as part of an ongoing trend.

Such vehicles have already been tested and reviewed by people with a disability, those unable to access traditional controls as a result of physical disability, those with little or no sight and the fragile with tremor and poor reactions have all welcomed the technology and increasingly wait for Phoenix to become the norm.

The technology that drives these innovations has much in common, the underlying sensors, connectivity and use of data are shared across all, it is the application of the technology to each aspect of mobility that is making a difference, the planning and designing of delivery droids, semi-autonomous aids and self-driving cars can make fully independent travel a reality for many for whom this is a barrier currently, learning from the emerging application of the technology and listening to a breadth of users will hasten that reality for all.