[AutonomousVehicles] Important Discussion Questions (looking forward to lots of insights)

[pmdonahue2 at gmail.com]

Hello Cornelius and everyone,

 

                It sounds like any company wishing to deploy autonomous vehicles and associated apps for passengers or for delivery services needs to be urged to work with the NFB and the blind community at large to develop systems to alert blind persons of their arrival, Departure, and their potential actions when encountering blind pedestrians. I’m linking this back to a post earlier this week discussing robotic vehicle interactions with pedestrians so the blind receive such alerts meaningful to them.

 

Peter Donahue

 

 

 

From: AutonomousVehicles <autonomousvehicles-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Cornelius Butler via AutonomousVehicles
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2021 6:58 AM
To: autonomousvehicles at nfbnet.org
Cc: Cornelius Butler <corn at butlernewmedia.com>
Subject: [AutonomousVehicles] Important Discussion Questions (looking forward to lots of insights)

 

Hi Everyone,
I have a discussion question for you. I'm noticing with the monitoring and research that I do of the autonomous driving industry that a lot of companies are trending towards and testing robotic delivery. This has major implications for those of us who are blind and low vision.

How it Works:
You use an app or website to place your order. Currently Domino's and 7-Eleven stores are just two of the companies that are doing this. The store loads your item into a small device on wheels that often uses the sidewalk or in some cases the roads to navigate to you. Once it arrives you have  to physically go outside and open the device to get your order. I do not see any voice notification or braille on the vehicles that I have been paying close attention to.

I have not tested the accessibility of the ordering apps yet.

The Two Big Companies in this industry are:

Nuro (they work with Domino's and several other firms):
https://www.nuro.ai/

Serve Robotics (they are working with 7-Eleven Stores):
https://www.serverobotics.com/

Questions For Discussion:

How can we ensure that these companies and others like them include accessibility features in their products?

What accessibility features would you like these services/products to have?

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