AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

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Six Things Wheelchair Users Should Know About Autonomous Vehicles

BY JENNY SMITH

In cities across the United States, autonomous vehicles aren’t a scene from a far-fetched sci-fi movie. They’re a reality.

It’s an understatement that autonomous vehicles, or self-driving vehicles, could change the lives of thousands of people with disabilities. Lack of access to accessible transportation limits opportunities for work, social activities and medical appointments for many wheelchair users. Driving is often not an option, either because of lack of function or the cost of after-market modifications. Accessible public transit is spotty at best in

most major cities and often nonexistent in small towns and rural areas. Paratransit companies are notoriously unreliable. We need better options.

Michele Lee, a C5-6 quad, is on the public affairs team with a focus on accessibility at Cruise, a ride-hailing AV service headquartered in San Francisco. Before that she was the employment program director at United Spinal Association. “I always found that a huge barrier to employment for wheelchair users was transportation — or not having access to funds to buy an expensive modified vehicle,” Lee says.

But it’s not only about employment. “After my injury in 2002, I had to move from the suburbs of Chicago to the city. In Chicago, I could take the bus because they all had ramps,” she says. Getting to outpatient therapy and social activities was not a problem. But, she says, “as a young female in a wheelchair, I always felt a bit vulnerable riding the bus.” Plus, available bus routes and schedules made transport options limited. “This is why I’m at Cruise — and why I’m advocating for accessible AV transportation.”

Here are six key points you need to know about the autonomous vehicle revolution:

AVs will first drive people through ridehailing services

Autonomous vehicles are already delivering pizzas and snacks on college campuses, transporting groceries to customers’ homes from Walmart in Phoenix and moving truckloads of supplies and goods on major interstates. Toyota, Volkswagen, General Motors, Jaguar and other companies have jumped on the AV bandwagon, developing vehicles for personal and ride-hailing services.

A least three companies in the U.S. — Cruise, Waymo and May Mobility — currently offer AV ride-hailing services. Cruise offers driverless rides in San Francisco, while Waymo has been

Cruise is already operating autonomous vehicle ride-hailing services on the streets of San Francisco. This photo illustration shows their Origin “robotaxi,” which was unveiled in 2020 and is scheduled to begin production in 2023. No timeline for when this guy is getting a footplate.

operating for nearly two years in the East Valley of Phoenix and recently expanded service to downtown Phoenix and Sky Harbor Airport. May Mobility currently offers AVs with backup drivers in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Arlington, Texas.

Each of these companies claims its goal is to provide more transportation options to people who have limited access to transportation — including wheelchair users. However, at this time, neither Waymo nor Cruise offers wheelchair-accessible services. May Mobility is the only company currently offering wheelchair-accessible autonomous ride-hailing services in the U.S. Erin McCurry, product manager and accessibility lead at May Mobility, says the company didn’t want to re-create the wheel. “We partnered with wheelchair-accessible van manufacturer BraunAbility to modify the Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS vehicles to include ADA-compliant vehicles.”

Kent Keyser, a C3-4 incomplete quad and public policy fellow for United Spinal Association, says, “The vast majority of the focus is on designing vehicles to serve in fleets — like shuttles, taxis and ride-hailing services. Sure, someday you may see an automated vehicle for sale to individuals, but for the average passenger, the price tag for any AV in the foreseeable future is going to be way out of our reach.” Ride-hailing services will be the primary use of AVs for the majority of the population until the price of the systems drops significantly.

Current AV designs are hit and miss for wheelchair access

Autonomous vehicles require a complete redesign to be made accessible. Almost all AVs run off an electric battery, which provides a stable power source and clean energy. Current AVs place batteries in the floor of a vehicle. “The floor design has to be rethought and essentially redesigned,” says Keyser. “That takes time — several years, not months.”

Rethinking space usage is to our advantage. The Origin is Cruise’s purpose-built vehicle that “looks like a living room on wheels,” says Lee, laughing. “It has a ramp, a space for the wheelchair, and a transfer seat. We’re working with BraunAbility and GM to help Cruise develop the vehicle while keeping in mind that safety is the number one priority.”

When I asked Waymo about plans to add wheelchair-accessible AVs to its fleet, Orlee Smith, a product manager, responded: “We are a technology company focused on building a driver, not a vehicle. We work with [manufacturers] to bring our technology to their vehicle platform.” In other words, Waymo isn’t attempting to create an accessible vehicle — the company is leaving that task to vehicle manufacturers. The problem with this logic is that Waymo isn’t just a driver. It is also a service provider, one that offers rides in minivans, just not wheelchair-accessible ones.

Zoox, an AV company owned by Amazon, is developing an AV “robotaxi,” but its first-generation vehicle isn’t wheelchair accessible. The company says that it’s in the process of developing a wheelchair-accessible version, but there’s no firm timeline for completion. French startup EasyMile produces an autonomous shuttle that operates on fixed routes and features an integrated wheelchair ramp. Similarly, Toyota has a wheelchair accessible autonomous shuttle, the e-Palette, which debuted at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

AVs are sparking a quest for a universal wheelchair-securement system

If AVs are to be fully accessible — with no backup driver — wheelchair users needs to be able to independently secure themselves in the vehicle. While standard four-point tiedown systems are safe, many wheelchair

How Do AVs Operate?

AVs operate with software and hardware, including cameras that provide a 360-degree view, LIDAR (a remotesensing method to measure distance), radar, artificial intelligence algorithms and computer programming. Based on input received from hardware, AV software determines where the vehicle needs to go and predicts and responds to movement of objects, people and animals. Cruise sums up the AV process like this: “See. Think. Act.” The more the AVs drive, the more information they collect and “learn,” and the safer they become. During that learning process, AVs use backup drivers. Once the AVs achieve an agreed-upon level of safety, backup drivers are phased out. May Mobility is still using backup drivers, or autonomous vehicle operators. Communications Manager Brittany Lockard explains, “As our technology progresses, we’re working toward driver-out operations. In the interim, our AVOs provide an extra layer of customer service and safety redundancy in our commercial operations.” Cruise is the first company to operate a commercial driverless ride-hailing service in San Francisco, one of the most complex driving environments in the world. “If we’re able to safely operate in San Francisco, we’re technically able to do it anywhere,” says Lee. “We’re excited to expand, but we know from a safety perspective we want to do it extremely well, and then start to expand.”

users can’t fasten them without help. Docking systems like the EZ Lock are customized for individual wheelchair users. We need a universal securement system.

A team from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, along with United Spinal Association, BraunAbility, May Mobility and others, was selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inclusive Design Challenge. The goal is to design an independent wheelchair docking station and automated belt-donning system. Current designs for the Universal Docking Interface Geometry will secure the rear wheels and back canes. Until this is developed, May Mobility is currently using the Q’Straint manual securement system with the backup driver securing the belts.

Accessible infrastructure is as important as the vehicles

It’s not just the technology and vehicles that need to be accessible. How does a wheelchair user enter and exit the vehicle? Dropoff zones, access aisles for ramp deployment, curb cuts and sidewalks all must be designed and constructed to provide door-to-door access.

Then, when construction changes accessible routes, how do AVs “know” this information? They partner with transit systems in each city to ensure drop-off zones are always fully accessible, says May Mobility’s McCurry.

Those within the AV industry are confident it will work, but service providers will likely be reliant on information acquired from many different sources. The timeliness and reliability of real-world accessibility information will be crucial to the functionality of autonomous vehicles for wheelchair users. Arriving at your destination in an accessible vehicle won’t be very useful if you can’t get out.

Other services have to be accessible too

All AV services — payment, communication, selection of entertainment — must be fully accessible, not only for wheelchair users but also for deaf and blind communities. Fully accessible emergency response and rescue systems are also vital to ensure wheelchair users are not stranded on the road and can deboard an AV independently and safely in an emergency situation.

Delivery services, like Cruise’s partnership with Walmart in Phoenix, also need to consider access. Currently, the Chevy Bolt is used for deliveries. Their products — placed on the back seat of the vehicle — are not accessible to many wheelchair users. Cruise states that they plan to use the Origin for accessible delivery services when it becomes available.

We need sustained advocacy to ensure AVs work for us

As always, advocacy is key. Autonomous vehicles still have a long way to go before they impact the daily lives of the average person — disabled or not. However, Lee’s excitement gives me hope that accessible AVs are a real possibility in the future. “I’ve rolled into the Origin,” she says. “I’ve been in it. It’s amazing. As a wheelchair user, I cannot wait for this vehicle to be on the road. We can talk about it all day long, but to be in it and experience it gave me goosebumps.”

Companies claim their goal is to provide access to people of all abilities, and some are making concrete progress in creating accessible AVs. But we need sustained advocacy to make sure they follow through on their lofty language. You only need to look at the multitude of lawsuits brought against Uber and Lyft to see how well ride-hailing companies accommodate people with disabilities in absence of robust accessibility regulations.

United Spinal and the We Will Ride coalition have been spearheading advocacy efforts to ensure AVs are accessible for everyone. “There are a number of opportunities for our members to participate in the design and development process of creating accessible AVs that will work for all of us — everything from answering in-depth surveys to brainstorming with auto and tech engineers to actually being part of a research study,” says United Spinal’s Keyser.

To receive updates on legislation and how to advocate for accessible AVs, sign up for newsletters from United Spinal (unitedspinal.org/newsletters) or follow the organization on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Waymo is operating autonomous ride-hailing services in the Phoenix area, but none of their vehicles are wheelchair accessible.

Autonomous Vehicle Safety

All AV companies agree that the goal of an autonomous vehicle is to safely and comfortably arrive at its destination. According to Waymo’s website, 94% of all accidents involve human error. But is AV technology really safe?

Waymo released a study in 2020 that gathered statistics from over 6.1 million miles of automated driving. According to the report, the 47 minor accidents involving a Waymo vehicle “show significant contribution from other agents, namely human-related deviations from traffic rules and safe driving performance. Nearly all the actual and simulated [accidents] involved one or more road rule violations.” More recent statistics released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tell the same story. From July 2021 to May 2022, there were 108 crashes involving fully autonomous vehicles, and, “in most of the crashes, vehicles were struck from the rear,” the Associated Press reported (with humans doing the rear-ending).