The Alphabet-owned company, which first demonstrated one of its autonomous vehicles publicly with a visually impaired man in the driver\u2019s seat back in 2015, says the new features were developed as part of Waymo\u2019s participation in the US Department of Transportation\u2019s first-ever Inclusive Design Challenge. And while the company didn\u2019t win the challenge (that honor went to Purdue University), Waymo decided to incorporate the new features into its Waymo One ride-hailing service that\u2019s currently operating in Arizona and California. <\/p>\n

\u201cWinning would have been nice,\u201d said Kevin Malta, a product manager at Waymo who led development for these features. But \u201cbuilding these features was always the primary aim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another interesting feature is aimed at passengers with visual impairments. In order to ensure they get in the right vehicle, the Waymo AV will emit a uniquely melodic chime to help direct them. Malta said that working with advocates from the blind and low-vision community helped develop a product that would be useful to riders while also keeping in mind the ill effects of noise pollution and aggressive honking.<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u201cIn our testing, a lot of riders really loved it,\u201d Malta said. \u201cNot to mention that the car horn can be a little cacophonous. And so it was euphonious to be able to use this melody instead. Because we didn\u2019t want to add to traffic noise pollution.\u201d<\/p>\nThe last feature that Waymo will be rolling out was a distance-to-car compass that\u2019s designed to help riders find their vehicle in places where GPS may be unreliable. It\u2019s meant to supplement the turn-by-turn navigation feature, which lacks precision to direct riders toward a specific pinpointed spot and can lose its usefulness as riders move closer to their vehicle.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-right\">\n<aside id=\"p0bonw\"><q>\u201cIt was euphonious to be able to use this melody instead\u201d<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\nAutonomous vehicles have long been held up as a solution to the many transportation woes confronted by people with disabilities. But the absence of a human driver, and a litany of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/23199117\/ride-sharing-disabled-passengers-accessibility-uber-lyft\">broken promises from other tech companies<\/a> promising solutions, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/22832657\/autonomous-vehicles-disabled-accessible-challenges-design\">has left some passengers skeptical<\/a> that AVs can really help improve accessibility in a meaningful way. <\/p>\nThe cost and difficulty in deploying wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAVs) is a big obstacle for the AV industry, but Waymo has been making some progress there. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cpuc.ca.gov\/regulatory-services\/licensing\/transportation-licensing-and-analysis-branch\/autonomous-vehicle-programs\/quarterly-reporting\">According to a recent report from the California Public Utilities Commission<\/a>, Waymo reported delivering 11 manual WAV trips in San Francisco over the course of the most recent reporting period. (The trips were completed with conventional vehicles, not Waymo\u2019s autonomous vehicles, with rides arranged on the company\u2019s Waymo One app, a spokesperson said.) The company also reported that it completed 1,518 trips with accessibility features enabled, which the spokesperson said was an indication of \u201cstrong adoption.\u201d<\/p>\nWaymo wants to set itself apart from the tech industry by working in direct collaboration with disability advocates, including San Francisco\u2019s chapter of Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Malta said. The hope is that, by involving passengers with disabilities directly in the design and testing process for new features, the company can help make the case that its AVs will help improve transportation equity in the long run. <\/p>\n\u201cThere might not be a human being in the front seat,\u201d he added, \u201cbut we haven\u2019t lost the human touch in the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<code> <\/br><\/code><\/p>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/9\/23298488\/waymo-accessible-disability-dot-design-challenge-av\">https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/9\/23298488\/waymo-accessible-disability-dot-design-challenge-av<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source: Waymo is introducing a raft of new features designed to make its fleet of autonomous taxis more accessible to passengers with visual impairments and other disabilities. The new features are sure to draw attention when they start hitting the streets. They include displaying the rider\u2019s initials on the rooftop dome as a visual way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-12017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","category-technology","tag-tech"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Waymo designed new features to improve AV access for passengers with disabilities - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/10\/waymo-designed-new-features-to-improve-av-access-for-passengers-with-disabilities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Waymo designed new features to improve AV access for passengers with disabilities - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source: Waymo is introducing a raft of new features designed to make its fleet of autonomous taxis more accessible to passengers with visual impairments and other disabilities. 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