[NFBC-At-Large] FW: Happy Anniversary of Blind Driver Challenge—Accelerating Our Efforts

Sat Jan 30 03:05:38 UTC 2021

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Tina 

ect: Happy Anniversary of Blind Driver Challenge—Accelerating Our Efforts

Celebrating Tenth Anniversary of Blind Driver Challenge—Accelerating Our Efforts

The National Federation of the Blind is celebrating the ten year anniversary of the Blind Driver Challenge by accelerating it this year. We are collaborating with  <https://www.nfb.org/libraries/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=19821&qid=4827769> Dan Parker to build and operate a car to attempt to break the Guinness Book World Record for the “Fastest Speed for a Car Driven Blindfolded” in the fall of 2021, anticipating reaching a speed of over two hundred miles per hour.

The effort is an acceleration of the NFB’s Blind Driver Challenge, an initiative in which the ability of a blind driver to successfully operate an automobile using nonvisual technology was demonstrated ten years ago. On January 29, 2011, Mark Riccobono, now President of the National Federation of the Blind, independently operated a modified Ford Escape hybrid <https://www.nfb.org/libraries/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=19831&qid=4827769>  on the Daytona International Speedway, navigating the course’s turns as well as avoiding dynamic obstacles by following haptic prompts generated by input from the vehicle’s GPS, cameras, and LIDAR sensors. The goal of the Blind Driver Challenge going forward is for the nation’s blind to share our lived experience and expertise in nonvisual technology in a collaboration with industry leaders to develop nonvisual interfaces so that blind people will be able to independently use autonomous vehicles to safely navigate daily life. 

“Our Daytona Blind Driver Challenge demonstration changed the perceptions of blindness held by society, including the perceptions that we ourselves held as blind people,” said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. “It further demonstrated to the world that the expertise of the blind is critical to the development of nonvisual interfaces. We are now accelerating the challenge in 2021 because the need for urgency in the development and implementation of accessibility in emerging technology is even greater. We look forward to working with Dan Parker and others on innovations that will enhance the mobility and independence of blind Americans.”

“I am proud and honored to partner with the National Federation of the Blind and the Blind Driver Challenge to bring the Guinness World Record for the fastest blind person in the world home to America,” said Dan Parker. “With the work of the Blind Driver Challenge, it was demonstrated that a blind person can safely drive a vehicle, and I will demonstrate that a blind person can safely race a vehicle at over two hundred miles per hour. Together we hope to inspire the blind youth of today to get involved in STEM at their schools. My 2008 Corvette is a purpose-built race car and I designed every aspect of it.”

Dan Parker is the first blind person to independently drive a vehicle to fifty miles per hour, one hundred miles per hour, and one hundred fifty miles per hour to this date. His Corvette makes over eight hundred horsepower and has a custom guidance system that gives him audible feedback.

Stay tuned for more exciting details on the  <https://www.nfb.org/libraries/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=19822&qid=4827769> Blind Driver Challenge.

 <https://www.nfb.org/libraries/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=19823&qid=4827769> 

 <https://www.nfb.org/libraries/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=19824&qid=4827769> 

 <https://www.nfb.org/libraries/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=19825&qid=4827769> 

 <https://www.nfb.org/libraries/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=19826&qid=4827769> 

 <https://www.nfb.org/libraries/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=19827&qid=4827769> 

 <https://www.nfb.org/libraries/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=19828&qid=4827769> 

National Federation of the Blind | 200 E Wells Street | Baltimore, MD 21230 | 410-659-9314 

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