[Promotion-technology] off-topic: blind driving

[Hoffman, Allen]

I applaud the folks working on the blind driving challenge, however,
where is the autonomous driving challenge support from NFB?  On
technical and social feasibility levels autonomously navigated vehicles
are a much shorter path to operation than vehicles directed solely by a
blind operator.  Even, and this is a big even, if a blind person can
safely operate a vehicle in a real driving situation, social acceptance
of such is such a high barrier as to make this truly a pipe dream.
Autonomous navigation is not far off, what with GPS and other
technologies-and to be frank, people have a lot less issue with a robot
driver than a blind one.  I'd be happy with my car taking me where I
tell it to, and leaving the blind driving for the hobbyists.  Use of
technologies extracted from such research may be interesting, but
greater publicity and organizational support for self-driving cars would
make a heck of a lot more sense to me.