Navigating in the Dark -- Designing Autonomous Driving Features to Assist Old Adults with Visual Impairments

TL;DR

This paper presents a human-centered design for autonomous vehicle features tailored to assist older adults with visual impairments, enhancing their safety, awareness, and control during travel.

Contribution

It introduces a novel prototype integrating voice navigation, 360-degree cameras, and manual controls specifically designed for visually impaired elderly users in autonomous vehicles.

Findings

Prototype improves situational awareness for visually impaired older adults.

Design enhances safety and control during autonomous vehicle rides.

User feedback indicates increased comfort and confidence.

Abstract

Age-related macular degeneration is a leading cause of blindness worldwide and is one of many limitations to independent driving among old adults. Highly autonomous vehicles present a prospective solution for those who are no longer capable of driving due to low vision. However, accessibility issues must be addressed to create a safe and pleasant experience for this group of users so that it allows them to maintain an appropriate level of situational awareness and a sense of control during driving. In this study, we made use of a human-centered design process consisting of five stages - empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. We designed a prototype to aid old adults with age-related macular degeneration to travel with a necessary level of situational awareness and remain in control while riding in a highly or fully autonomous vehicle. The final design prototype includes a voice-activated navigation system with three levels of details to bolster situational awareness, a 360 degree in-vehicle camera to detect both the passenger and objects around the vehicle, a retractable microphone for the passenger to be easily registered in the vehicle while speaking, and a physical button on the console-side of the right and left front seats to manually activate the navigation system.