“What are you, blind?” It’s got to be one of the motorist’s most-used phrases, but it’s also clearly a rhetorical one. Of all the hardships that come with visual impairment, the inability to drive is surely one of the most frustrating, especially in car-centric cultures like the US. Nearly a decade ago the National Federation for the Blind launched its Blind Driver Challenge, which challenged universities to take up the cause of developing technology that would allow the visually impaired to operate motor vehicles. Today that technology exists. AOL News reports on a Virginia Tech program that is developing a vehicle that can be operated without visual input.
The modified dune buggy they created utilizes a front-mounted, laser-range-finder sensor. It constantly feeds visual data into a computer that “interface” with a blind driver in two ways.
First, the driver wears a vest embedded with tiny motors that vibrate at different intensity levels according to how fast the car should be going.
Secondly, the computer issues audio cues every few seconds, telling the driver how much to turn the steering wheel and in what direction. Wenger admits that the robot voice can be “a little obnoxious.” Indeed, it’s like having a know-it-all back-seat driver that doesn’t know when to shut up.
Testing has produced even further innovations, and the latest test model is nearly complete.
The laser sensor has been upgraded. The vibrating vest has given way to a pair of vibrating driving gloves. The audio cues are history. Instead, the driver will get his bearings from a so-called flexible-surface “tactile map” on the dashboard. The map runs on compressed air and changes shape to reflect what lies on the road ahead. The driver reads the map with his fingertip
In short, much of the technology for autonomous driving is mature. The problem now? Giving blind drivers actual control of the vehicle, instead of having to rely on computer instructions. Several years of work is still needed to make the UVT system able to read road signs, and otherwise roadworthy. For now, they’ll continue testing systems with a dune buggy in a University parking lot.
And even if UVT is able to create a convincing system for blind drivers, the biggest challenge will still be waiting: acceptance from non-impaired drivers, insurance companies and the government. There’s no technological fix for these issues, and as UVT’s student team leader puts it “there are way too many skeptics out there.”
Given the complex lack of predictability involved in driving, and the split-second reaction times needed to handle on-road situations, the technology will have to be highly developed to convince all the skeptics. Besides, if autonomous driving technology matures first, the lines between personal and public transportation will only blur, robbing automobiles of many of their freedom-bestowing advantages. Still, with the proper technology, is it so hard to imagine blind drivers being much worse than the current batch of texting, drunk, or otherwise incompetent drivers?
UVT? When you abbreviate Virginia Tech, it’s just VT
(BSEE, Virginia Tech, 1987)
Brilliant! (Oh, man, I do seem to be doing puns today, all unintentionally).
I hope it comes to pass. I strongly suspect that blind drivers will be more careful (in order to keep their driving privileges) than most of us now on the road.
VT has quite the advanced automotive engineering department. Not only are they developing this, but they put together quite a showing for the DARPA (self-driven automobiles) challenge and they also have a purpose-built raised highway system out in the countryside of SW Virginia that is a “smart road”…it thaws itself and I believe can provide weather and traffic related data to cars. It’s kinda strange driving out in the middle of nowhere and coming across a ginormous raised roadway. Good to see they are getting a bit of publicity.
From a proud Hokie alum…2002.
I imagine states would require some pretty severe testing of vision-impaired drivers before allowing them on the road. Would they be required to have special markings on the vehicle to alert other drivers? It’s also hard to imagine how insurance companies would be able to determine an appropriate risk-based premium until there was some historical data for the actuaries to work with.
From a tech perspective, would the vehicle have fail-safes that would shut down the car in the event of sensor failure?
As someone who lives in the Richmond area, and is constantly bombarded by ‘Virginia Tech’ or ‘Hokies’ in the local newspaper; it’s wonderful to see that they’re getting credit for doing something worthwhile – not just that damned football team.
Not that the Hokie fans will ever notice . . . . . . .
This technology should be similar to driving behind an eighty year old grandmother in her Volvo diesel station wagon.
In terms of technology, all of the pieces are in place to where autonomous driving could exist – not just for the blind, but for all. Now, the question of should it exist? That may or may not be another matter.
Just months ago I was on a long drive through a rather uninspired part of the plains, and dreaming of a day when I could allow GPS, cruise control and electric steering to take over the task of steering down an arrow-straight highway while I enjoyed the scenery, read, watched a movie or even caught a few winks. Challenging drives through twisty switchbacks are fun to tackle on your own; long freeway drives through the square states, not so much.
And then along came the Toyota “gremlins”…real or imagined (I suspect the latter), it nonetheless gives me pause at the thought of putting my life in the hands of electronics that will propel and steer my car at speeds of over a mile a minute.
But for a minute there I was certain we would have something close to the high-speed personal monorail vehicles that I saw in old issues of Popular Science. (heavy sigh)
It is amazing that the same person who does their nails, eats and reads while driving (yes, I’m talking to you mom) will think nothing of smirking at the efforts of seriously visually impaired persons like myself to drive.
If I were in a wheelchair and became able to walk, they’d make a movie about it. But become able to drive after 35 years and you get snarky sometimes rude comments.
I hope more and more of this gets into the real world if not to replace my (semi-functional) eyes, to augment them.
It should be noted that we’ve come a long way already. GPS that speaks street names helps with those tiny signs. Warnings about cars in blind spots and lane departures help too, as do the warnings and brake readiness that adaptive cruise control provides when the car in front of you stops short. Good stuff for all of us, not just those with visual impairments.
Glad to see fellow Hokies here, and being recognized nationally.
That said, I think the Autonomous team’s DARPA efforts are superior to this. Putting an impaired driver into the loop is a clear step backwards compared to autonomous vehicles. The DARPA teams even cleared the obstacle of reading traffic control signs/signals with the Urban Challenge vehicle.
I think the team formed to go after this prize simply because the engineering department needs to find additional projects to sustain an ever-increasing graduating class. The Mechanical Engineering department has for years required every senior to participate in a full-year “senior design project” such as the DARPA challenges, SAE Mini-Baja, FormulaSAE, etc. It is my understanding that the Bradley Dept of Electrical/Computer engineering may have added such a requirement since my graudation.
(BSME, 2002, FormulaSAE team)