In this interactive session, Dr. Giudice described some of his current research on making autonomous vehicles (AVs) accessible for use by blind and visually impaired passengers, discussed the many benefits and huge potential of this newest form of transportation, and highlighted some of the challenges that need to be addressed. A significant part of successfully making AVs accessible is getting input from the key stakeholders and users of these vehicles. Thus occured by answering attendees’ questions, both those submitted prior to the session as well as in real time, Dr. Giudice fostered a discussion of user preferences and concerns around the roll-out of AVs. This brain storming can be used to guide future research.

Presenter: Nicholas A. Giudice, PhD., Professor of Spatial Informatics: School of Computing and Information Science- University of Maine, Founder & Chief Research Scientist: VEMILab, Co-founder & Chief Research Officer Unar Labs, LLC.,

 [email protected]