VW working with disabled people to understand mobility needs

MUNICH — As Volkswagen's electric vehicle transition matures and autonomous driving capabilities from partner Argo AI grow, the German automaker is thinking hard about what some purpose-built vehicle cabins ought to look like — and whether they need to undergo a similar revolution to make them more accessible to people with disabilities.

Volkswagen — through its upstart European ride-sharing subsidiary, Moia, and its Commercial Vehicles group — and Argo AI have been piloting autonomous ride-sharing in Germany, now with specially built versions of VW's upcoming ID Buzz microbus. But as they look to expand those offerings, including ultimately into the 10 largest cities in the U.S., the automaker is thinking about losing some foundational longtime components and gaining others, such as wheelchair ramps.

VW showed off its latest ID Buzz-based ride-share vehicles at its new test facility here near Munich International Airport last month. In addition to ride-sharing, plans call for the vehicles to be used for commercial deliveries.

"At this [preliminary] stage, because we have a safety driver, we need a steering wheel, but for commercial services with a digital driver, we don't," Thomas Form, who leads the autonomous planning function for the commercial versions of the ID Buzz, explained.

In the U.S., with regulatory framework that includes the Americans with Disabilities Act, the challenges facing designers, engineers and others trying to build autonomous mobility for everyone — including those who have impediments that would otherwise keep them from using an automobile — are complex. One example: how to secure a wheelchair in an AV if the occupant isn't physically able to do so themselves.

Volkswagen Group of America has been working on the issues for several years and is seeing progress in some areas but still has work to do in others.

In terms of wheelchairs, for instance, a lack of standards among wheelchair manufacturers has made developing proper safety restraints more difficult, requiring further input from the chairs' makers, insurers, governments and users, the automaker says.

"We're focusing on bringing accessibility features into autonomous vehicles that are designed to be operated exclusively by ride-sharing or ride-pooling services. Those vehicles require interior concepts that are fundamentally different from cars that are sold to individuals," explained Christian Lorenz, senior director for intelligent cockpit and body at VW of America.

The company has made progress on a screen reader-accessible software interface that would aid those with visual or hearing impairments in using AVs, as well as external speakers and microphones to aid them in entering and exiting the otherwise occupant-free — and largely silent — autonomous vehicle.

"Technology is evolving rapidly, and there's an unprecedented opportunity to redesign how we get around," said Shani Jayant, user experience research and design manager at Volkswagen Group of America. "In our work, we focus on those groups of people who have been traditionally underserved in mobility spaces."

Jayant's team has been working with disability advocates and groups to explore specific needs, but to do so effectively, "we need to be involved in continuous dialogue with the people who are underserved to hear from them their experiences, and not simply imagine what those experiences might be," she said.

Seats are another area that might be redesigned or at least reconfigurable, based on the needs of people with specific disabilities as well as the need to meet federal safety regulations. Deaf passengers could benefit from seating that would swivel, allowing better face-to-face communications with other passengers, VW says, but rear-facing seats also are more likely to induce motion sickness.

"There's a lot of thought that goes into the features we design because we need to keep many aspects in mind," Lorenz said. "One important one would be how self-driving vehicles might help people with sensory impairments, like those that are blind, low-vision, deaf and hard of hearing. For us, this means thinking about haptic solutions, visual and audio guiding systems, even the way an approaching vehicle introduces itself as a ride."