[il-talk] FW: [Nfbnet-master-list] Blind Man Drives Car Independently

[Robert A.Hansen]

-----Original Message-----
From: "Freeh, Jessica" <JFreeh at nfb.org>
Sent: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 11:13:01 Pacific Standard Time
To: nfbnet-master-list at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfbnet-master-list] Blind Man Drives Car Independently



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



CONTACT:

John G. Paré Jr.

Executive Director for Strategic Initiatives

National Federation of the Blind

(410) 659-9314, extension 2218

(410) 917-1965 (Cell)

jpare at nfb.org



Blind Man Drives Car Independently



Avoids Dynamic Obstacles



Baltimore, Maryland (January 29, 2011): The 

National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the 

oldest and largest organization of blind people 

in the nation, announced today that for the first 

time a blind individual has driven a street 

vehicle in public without the assistance of a 

sighted person.  Mark Anthony Riccobono, a blind 

executive who directs technology, research, and 

education programs for the organization, was 

behind the wheel of a Ford Escape hybrid equipped 

with nonvisual technology and successfully 

navigated 1.5 miles of the road course section of 

the famed track at the Daytona International Speedway.



The historic demonstration was part of pre-race 

activities leading up to the Rolex 24 At Daytona 

this morning.  Mr. Riccobono not only 

successfully navigated the several turns of the 

road course but also avoided obstacles, some of 

which were stationary and some of which were 

thrown into his path at random from a van driving 

in front of him.  Later he successfully passed 

the van without collision.  The Ford Escape was 

equipped with laser range-finding censors that 

conveyed information to a computer inside the 

vehicle, allowing it to create and constantly 

update a three-dimensional map of the road 

environment.  The computer sent directions to 

vibrating gloves on the driver’s hands, 

indicating which way to steer, and to a vibrating 

strip on which he was seated, indicating when to speed up, slow down, or stop.



Mr. Riccobono said: “The NFB’s leadership in the 

Blind Driver Challenge™ has taken something 

almost everyone believed was an impossible dream 

and turned it into reality.  It was thrilling for 

me to be behind the wheel, but even more 

thrilling to hear the cheers from my blind 

brothers and sisters in the grandstands*—today 

all of the members of the NFB helped drive us 

forward*.  It is for them and for all blind 

Americans that the National Federation of the 

Blind undertook this project to show that blind 

people can do anything that our sighted friends 

and colleagues can do as long as we have access 

to information through nonvisual means.  Today we 

have demonstrated that truth to the nation and the world.”



Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National 

Federation of the Blind, said: “Just as our 

colleague Mark Riccobono successfully surmounted 

many obstacles on the Daytona course today, blind 

people routinely surmount barriers by using 

alternative techniques and technologies.  When 

there is not a solution available, we muster our 

resources and combine them with those of the 

partners who make common cause with us to produce 

the innovations necessary to create such a 

solution.  That is how the NFB Blind Driver 

Challenge™ came to happen, and that is how we 

will make all of our dreams come true.”



The NFB Blind Driver Challenge™ is a research 

project of the National Federation of the Blind 

Jernigan Institute—the only research and training 

facility on blindness operated by the blind.  The 

Jernigan Institute challenged universities, 

technology developers, and other interested 

innovators to establish NFB Blind Driver 

Challenge™ (BDC) teams, in collaboration with the 

NFB, to build interface technologies that will 

empower blind people to drive a car 

independently.  The purpose of the NFB Blind 

Driver Challenge™ is to stimulate the development 

of nonvisual interface technology.  The Virginia 

Tech/TORC NFB BDC team, under the direction of 

Dr. Dennis Hong, director of the Robotics and 

Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech., is the 

only team that has accepted the challenge.  The 

team uses the ByWire XGV™ developed by TORC 

technologies as the research platform for the 

development and testing of the nonvisual 

interface technologies that allow a blind person to drive.



For more information about the NFB, please visit 

www.nfb.org.  For our digital news release about 

the Blind Driver Challenge™ and the debut of the 

BDC car at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, including 

audio and video clips for television and radio, 

please visit www.DigitalNewsRelease.com/?q=NFB_CarKit.



###





About the National Federation of the Blind



With more than 50,000 members, the National 

Federation of the Blind is the largest and most 

influential membership organization of blind 

people in the United States.  The NFB improves 

blind people’s lives through advocacy, education, 

research, technology, and programs encouraging 

independence and self-confidence.  It is the 

leading force in the blindness field today and 

the voice of the nation's blind.  In January 2004 

the NFB opened the National Federation of the 

Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and 

training center in the United States for the blind led by







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