Earlier this month, the California Department of Motor Vehicles hosted public workshops to discuss its proposed regulations for the deployment of autonomous vehicles. Many advocates for people with disabilities voiced their concern that the regulations in their current form could preclude use of autonomous vehicles by people who have the most difficulty getting around.
In its current form, the DMV’s proposed regulations would require an able-bodied operator to assume operation of the vehicle in case of a technology failure. This would exclude use by people with disabilities who are not able to operate a traditional vehicle. Advocates have argued this does not have to be the case because regulatory and technological remedies are readily available.
As to regulatory solutions that might address these concerns, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently expressed willingness to consider an autonomous vehicle’s operating system as a driver. This expansive definition of what constitutes a driver could provide increased accessibility for people with disabilities. If the definition of a “person” can be expanded to include business entities such as corporations, for example, then the definition of a “driver” could be expanded to include an autonomous vehicle’s operating system. Many argue the DMV’s regulations are not forward-thinking enough because they require traditional operating mechanisms (e.g., steering wheels and brake pedals) and, as a consequence, require able-bodied operators that can make use of those mechanisms.
As to a technological solution, the technology required to put people with disabilities behind the wheel already exists. In 2011, Dr. Dennis Hong and his team of roboticists built a vehicle equipped with non-visual interfaces that allowed people with visual impairments to make active decisions and safely operate a vehicle. The vehicle was equipped with technology that obtained information from its environment and relayed it in a non-visual manner through the use of vibrations (transmitted through gloves and the driver’s seat) and compressed air (capable of changes in frequency and temperature to convey a change in environment).
The operating systems in autonomous vehicles currently being tested already collect information from their environments and translate it into data that can be processed by the vehicle itself (e.g., lane width, distance to objects, etc.). Disability rights advocates are asking that an additional translation be added that can be interpreted by people with visual impairments to greatly expand access to this valuable technology.
Autonomous vehicles offer the promise of greater independence and mobility for people with disabilities. At present, the DMV has proposed regulations that need to recognize these potential advances. From the standpoint of people with disabilities, such regulations should not simply preserve the status quo; they should recognize that people with disabilities cannot operate traditional vehicles and cannot use autonomous vehicles. By reserving use of autonomous vehicle technology to drivers that could operate a traditional vehicle, regulators appear to be missing an opportunity to allow new technologies to greatly expand access to autonomous vehicles. In the same way that the DMV regulations have been modified over the decades to permit greater access to conventional automobiles, with approved technological modifications, we should consider doing the same thing from the inception with driverless technologies.
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