Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Autonomous Vehicle Experience for the Visually Impaired (self.Blind)
submitted by adantito97
I am in an assistive design course in grad school working on a project relating to designing a service/experience for an ideal level 5 autonomous vehicle that could be used by the visually impaired. My group is trying to gain insight on what problems visually impaired people currently have with navigation and vehicle usage so that we could implement solutions into the design of an autonomous vehicle. We want it to be implemented in a way that would work for both visually impaired and non visually impaired users. We are thinking there would have to be some sort of smart AI assistant that would guide the trip and maybe some features in the interior of the car. Any thoughts or experiences are greatly appreciated.
blackberrybunny 4 points 2y ago
Wow.....a car that requires no driver, which could drive me anywhere I wanted to go.... this has been a 52 year long dream for me. I want to help you guys SO much. But I don't have any idea what to say, because I don't have any understanding about how this technology would even work.
I'm just thinking, how great would it be, to get into a car, buckle up, and just say, "Car, please take me to Wayne's house," and it would drive me there. It would be thrilling and frightening and so mobilizing for someone like me, who has been legally blind her whole life, whose one only wish ever was to be able to drive and be independent and to not have to rely on others.
It would be reassuring if the technology--the car that is--could tell me current locations, either upon my request, or every couple of minutes, so I'd know where I was. Some traffic info would be nice too. Is there a lot of traffic on the road? Is there ice/snow/rain on the road? How much longer to my destination?
And when I do get to the grocery store, for instance, does the car just go and park itself somewhere? When I come out of the store, can I ask my car to pick me up? Maybe by pushing a button on a fob? Or who knows how the technology will evolve. How do I know it's MY car arriving to get me--will it announce itself somehow? I don't want to get into a strangers car! This has happened before and it was scary!
Can my car tell me when it needs gas? And if it did, how does that work? I'm assuming my car will be all electric, so it's easy to plug in when we get home. But also, waiting on the curb for it to pick me up, these electric cars are SO silent that a lot of my blind friends have told me they are dangerous because they can't always hear them, when there is a lot of other noise going on. That might need to be addressed somehow too.
If my car needs a tune-up, or a new tire, can it let me know, and can it drive itself to a repair shop to get the work done?
The more I brainstorm on this, the more questions I have. I don't know if I'm helping you with this project at all, but I hope so, and these are just a few of the things that are crossing my mind.
Please, please build this car for me!
I'm just thinking, how great would it be, to get into a car, buckle up, and just say, "Car, please take me to Wayne's house," and it would drive me there. It would be thrilling and frightening and so mobilizing for someone like me, who has been legally blind her whole life, whose one only wish ever was to be able to drive and be independent and to not have to rely on others.
It would be reassuring if the technology--the car that is--could tell me current locations, either upon my request, or every couple of minutes, so I'd know where I was. Some traffic info would be nice too. Is there a lot of traffic on the road? Is there ice/snow/rain on the road? How much longer to my destination?
And when I do get to the grocery store, for instance, does the car just go and park itself somewhere? When I come out of the store, can I ask my car to pick me up? Maybe by pushing a button on a fob? Or who knows how the technology will evolve. How do I know it's MY car arriving to get me--will it announce itself somehow? I don't want to get into a strangers car! This has happened before and it was scary!
Can my car tell me when it needs gas? And if it did, how does that work? I'm assuming my car will be all electric, so it's easy to plug in when we get home. But also, waiting on the curb for it to pick me up, these electric cars are SO silent that a lot of my blind friends have told me they are dangerous because they can't always hear them, when there is a lot of other noise going on. That might need to be addressed somehow too.
If my car needs a tune-up, or a new tire, can it let me know, and can it drive itself to a repair shop to get the work done?
The more I brainstorm on this, the more questions I have. I don't know if I'm helping you with this project at all, but I hope so, and these are just a few of the things that are crossing my mind.
Please, please build this car for me!
ktwounds 1 points 2y ago
you would need to compensate for blind spots (due to damaged retinas not the car's blind spots) and lack of accurate depth perception. some sort of heads up display that tells me how far the car in front of me is and its relative velocity to my own speed so i can maintain a safe distance would be a start. I have more ideas on this as I used to be able to drive before my vision got worse
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