Waymo designed new features to improve AV access for passengers with disabilities

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The new features are designed to make it easier for people with visual impairments and other disabilities to get in and out of a taxi.

When the new features hit the streets, they will draw attention. The rider's initials are displayed on the rooftop dome as a way of identifying their assigned vehicle. There is a display that shows the user's Car ID, which consists of two colored letters.

The turn-by-turn navigation feature uses data on sidewalks, crosswalks, and other terrain features to give the most suitable route to the rider.

Waymo

According to the company, the new features were developed as a result of their participation in the US Department of Transportation's first ever Inclusive Design Challenge. While the company didn't win the challenge, they decided to incorporate the new features into their ride-sharing service in Arizona and California.

Kevin Malta said that winning would have been nice. The main aim was to build these features.

Passengers with visual impairments are the focus of the feature. To make sure they get in the right vehicle, the Waymo AV will emit a unique melodic chime. Malta said that working with advocates from the blind and low-vision community helped develop a product that would be useful to riders.

A lot of riders really liked it. The car horn can be a little too loud. It was sad to be able to use this melody. We didn't want to make traffic noise pollution worse.

A distance-to-car compass is one of the last features that will be rolled out by the company. The turn-by-turn navigation feature lacks precision to direct riders to a specific pinpointed spot and can lose its usefulness as riders move closer to their vehicle.

People with disabilities face a lot of transportation problems and have been held up as a solution to that. The absence of a human driver, and a number of broken promises from other tech companies, has left some passengers skeptical that audiovisuals can really improve accessibility.

The cost and difficulty in installing wheelchair accessible vehicles is a big obstacle for the industry. The most recent report from the California Public Utilities Commission states that Waymo delivered 11 manual WAV trips in San Francisco. The trips were done with conventional vehicles and not with the company's self-driving vehicles. According to the company, it completed 1,518 trips with accessibility features enabled.

Malta said that Waymo wants to set itself apart from the tech industry by collaborating with disability advocates. The company hopes that by involving passengers with disabilities in the design and testing process for new features, it can help improve transportation equity.

He said that there might not be a human in the front seat, but that they still have the human touch.