Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are closer to becoming a reality in changing the landscape of commercial and personal transportation. The launch of these vehicles come with the promise of improved road safety, reduced traffic fatalities, and enhanced mobility. However, there are questions as to whether the design of AVs will meet the needs of everyone, including people with disabilities and older adults. We argue that there exists no conceptual model that guide sthe inclusive design of autonomous vehicles to benefit all intended users. This paper proposes such a model, called the User Transportation-Activity Technology (UTT) model, which supports the inclusive design of AVs. We present a review of current models of assistive technology design and their drawbacks followed by an introduction of the UTT model and its application in AV design. This paper may benefit researchers, designers, and developers of autonomous vehicles interested in addressing accessible design issues in such vehicles.
Autonomous ridesharing vehicles provide a potential alternative and affordable mode of transportation for older adults and users with disabilities or special needs, but relatively few studies have investigated the accessibility of autonomous ridesharing applications and vehicles for them. Therefore, a participatory design approach was used to investigate the needs and challenges of this population. This investigation involved interviews, review of past focus group transcripts, literature reviews, and surveys. The findings resulted in a list of user needs to design and build prototypes of accessible technologies as part of an ecosystem for booking and riding in autonomous ridesharing vehicles. The ecosystem of technologies consisted of prototypes of a mobile application, a web application, an in-vehicle human-machine interface, an external human-machine interface, and the vehicle interior design.
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