Automotive News - Traverse City - August 6, 2019 - 13

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VW goal: AVs people with disabilities can use
Vehicle designs make accessibility a priority
Published May 20, 2019,
in Automotive News
Larry P. Vellequette

lvellequette@crain.com

obility for disabled people
is a major potential benefit of Level 5 autonomy,
perhaps second only to a
collision-free transportation system.
But while fully autonomous vehicles for the masses may be decades
away, Volkswagen Group has
launched an effort to ensure that
people with disabilities can benefit.
VW has teamed with advocacy
groups for people with disabilities to
ensure that their needs are accommodated as autonomous vehicles are designed.
Last month, VW hosted an initial
meeting in Washington between its
in-house design teams and representatives of groups including the
National Federation of the Blind,
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund and National Association
of the Deaf. The first topic: how to
make autonomous vehicles accessible to wheelchairs, as well as how to
properly secure those wheelchairs.

tions, for those who use wheelchairs.
While the vehicles' skateboard design and flat load floor may be more
easily configured to accommodate a
wheelchair, the floor-mounted battery packs mean added floor height,
making it more difficult for someone
in a wheelchair to enter or exit.
It's just one of numerous challenges, including how to secure the
wheelchair in the vehicle and how to
secure the passenger in the chair in a
way that meets federal safety standards. Designers also have to allow
for wheelchair users to be able to op-

erate the vehicle manually.
A team of vehicle engineers, designers and researchers at VW's advanced user-experience studio in
Belmont, Calif., is leading the automaker's study.

'Everyone at the table'
"It's definitely going to take collaboration between OEMs, advocacy
groups, wheelchair manufacturers and
securement providers to make sure
that whatever we develop is an effective and safe solution," said Shani
Jayant, principal user experience designer for Volkswagen Group of America, who's part of the mobility project.

Buckland: Focus
on wheelchair use

Keogh: Increase
accessibility

Jayant said VW designers in California started looking at the issue in
late 2017, and quickly realized they
needed specialized consulting.
"There are many other disability
groups we're working with," she said.

"I think it's just important that we have
everyone at the table from day one to
make sure that solutions for one group
aren't in conflict with solutions for another group."
The effort has support from the
highest levels within the automaker.
"Transportation is the key to full
participation in society," Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen Group of
America, said in a written statement.
"And for individuals with disabilities
today, the options can be limited.
Volkswagen is known as the people's
car company, and as the technology
allows, we want to design vehicles
that are more accessible." a

"It's definitely going to
take collaboration
between OEMs,
advocacy groups,
wheelchair
manufacturers and
securement providers
to make sure that
whatever we develop
is an effective and
safe solution."

Shani Jayant, Volkswagen
Group of America

Roughly an eighth of the U.S. population has a disability, according to
the U.S. Census Bureau. A 2017 white
paper funded by the Ruderman
Family Foundation on the impact of
autonomous driving on disabled
people estimated that the technology could open employment opportunities for up to 2 million people
with disabilities and save up to $19
billion annually in health care costs
from missed medical appointments.

'Long-standing problem'
Kelly Buckland doesn't need a white
paper to explain the particulars. He is
executive director of the National
Council on Independent Living, one of
several advocacy groups working with
VW on the issue, and he uses a power
wheelchair daily.
"This is a long-standing problem,
but it becomes even more important
with autonomous vehicles," Buckland said this month in an interview.
"With all the sensors and things
needed for autonomous vehicles,
unless it comes wheelchair accessible, I can't take it somewhere to
make it wheelchair accessible. We
think it's impactive that, if the industry is going to make autonomous vehicles, you have to make it wheelchair accessible from the get-go."
The onset of electrified vehicles
presents an added challenge, and an
opportunity for broader mobility op-

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Automotive News - Traverse City - August 6, 2019

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