Passengers with Disabilities Were Promised Autonomous Vehicles- They’re Still Waiting

People with vision, hearing and mobility impairments would greatly benefit from self-driving cars, and for years, they’ve been promised that these vehicles would soon be available.

A recent article discusses how designing these autonomous vehicles for passengers with disabilities has turned out to be a large challenge, and there is concern among some groups that developers are not making accessibility enough of a priority. They feel that the more accessible these cars are from the beginning of the process, the more everyone will benefit.

Another complication is that many policies drafted to assist individuals with disabilities were "written long before anyone seriously dreamed that self-driving mobility could happen — and, quite often, even before computers were part of our everyday lives. Many of those policies came from the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was signed into law 31 years ago."

For more information, see the article, “Disabled Passengers were Promised Autonomous Vehicles- They’re Still Waiting”.