Researchers work to develop a vehicle that can be driven by the blind

Researchers work to develop a vehicle that can be driven by the blind

Last Saturday, a blind driver dodged cardboard boxes thrown in front of him while driving a modified Ford Hybrid Escape around the Daytona International Speedway. He had only seconds to react to the obstacles.

"If we just put boxes on the track, people might think we planned the route," said Dennis Hong, whose robotics and mechanisms lab at Virginia Tech modified the cars.

Instead, Hong's team threw boxes from a van so they bounced around. “That shows everyone that their position is random, and that the drivers are really driving,” said Hong.

In addition to avoiding boxes and taking the raceway's turns, the driver, Mark Riccobono, also passed the van.

Fortunately, Riccobono and a second blind driver, Anil Lewis, had done it before.

"The other day, when we got to drive by ourselves, it surpassed any perception of thrilling," Riccobono wrote in an e-mail after a mid-January test run at Virginia International Speedway. Riccobono, who lost his sight at the age of five, is executive director of the National Federation of the Blind's research arm, the Jernigan Institute.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-vehicle-driven.html

One hopes.

Especially if I could program it to take me 500 miles and just sit back and watch DVDs with a bottle of booze.

there are enough crappy drivers on the road that CAN see...

We called them Buicks.

is the top of his hat.

Sounded like you were talking about my step-father!

That would account for a lot of the driving I've witnessed just over the past few days.

next up: driving and texting in braille