Could a Blind Person Drive a Car?
=================================


Wolran Kim
Mar. 2012


Could a blind person drive a car? My answer is yes, and in the near future. Until now, a great deal of science fiction has become a reality. We did not have these kinds of technologies, such as computers, the Internet, spaceships, robot, or iPhones even a half century ago. All inventions start from the imagination and a dream world that we often see in science fiction films such as The Matrix, Back to the Future, Terminator, and Inception. Of course, those imaginary concepts take a long time to put the invention to practical use in the daily life of reality.

We are going to have progressive new technologies. The iPhone, which recognizes users’ voices, faces, and fingerprints, will become a smart robot that can do all our housework, even things such as babysitting. Computers will be able to read our minds, our identities will be distinguished from automatic scans showing our identification tattoos wherever we go, and life spans will increase to over 150 years with being able to control much more incurable diseases and perfecting organ banks.

My idea is called the iCar, named after the iPhone. It can be driven without a driver and also by a blind person. Many companies such as General Motors, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Volvo, and Google have begun testing driverless car systems since the 80’s. General Motors has stated that they will begin testing driverless cars by 2015, and they could be on the road by 2018. Volvo has begun to develop an almost-autonomous 'road train' system for highways which could be integrated in with cars by 2020. At the 2011 TED Conference, Google showed a new car that it has designed that will drive itself. The demo was done on a closed track, but a route on the closed track was drawn on Google Maps, and the car figured out its own trajectory.

The National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech plan to demonstrate a prototype vehicle 2011, equipped with technology that helps a blind person drive a car independently. The
technology, called "non-visual interfaces," (sensor lasers and cameras, drive-grip, air-pix, etc.) uses sensors to let the blind driver maneuver a car based on information transmitted to him about his surroundings: whether another car or object is nearby, in front of him, or in a neighboring lane. For many blind people, driving a car has been considered impossible. But researchers hope the project will revolutionize mobility and challenge long-held assumptions about limitations.

Dr. Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, said "We're exploring areas that have previously been regarded as unexplorable," "We're moving away from the theory that blindness ends the capacity of human beings to make contributions to society.” Advocates for the blind say it will take time before society accepts the potential of blind drivers and that the safety of the technology will need to be proven through years of testing. But more than anything, they say its part of a broader mission to change the way people perceive the blind.

I’m not a mechanical scientist or inventor, but my imagination thinks that our optic nerve can connect to the navigator inside our brain. I know this is too impractical, out of touch with reality, and consists of too much imaginary fiction. That’s why I talked about all the science fiction movies in the beginning. A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. So, after connecting our optic nerve and the navigation file, all blind people will be able to see or read road maps while driving, just as we see Google maps on our iPhones. Someday, all driverless cars and blind people’s cars will drive on the roads in the cities.