by Beverly Clifford

Recently, I was lucky enough to be the very first person to ride in a driverless test vehicle in The Villages, here in South San Jose. But before I describe that first day of testing, let me give you some background information.

Voyage is a new company with a vision and a mission: First, to engineer the safest driverless car imaginable; and second, to keep seniors connected, independent, and in their homes for as long as possible by providing them with a free taxi service to every place in our community, be it house, community center, swimming pool, park, golf course, or restaurant. The Villages is the first and only community presently testing Voyage's driverless cars, but there are plans to test them in other communities, as well as eventually moving their efforts into larger cities. To start, however, the company needed a small community with challenging driving conditions, and The Villages fit the bill, offering the opportunity to teach their car how to avoid families of meandering ducks or geese, deer dashing across the road, inattentive drivers in speeding golf carts or automobiles, and fragile, slow-moving humans, all on small, winding roads.

On September 13, 2017, I received a call from a neighbor informing me that preliminary testing of Voyage's cars would begin soon, and the company was seeking four volunteers to be their first testers. She thought I'd be perfect for the job, and I thought it would be great fun; plus, I'd be able to tell my friends in the blindness community all about my experience, and I'd be helping to advance the future of the driverless car industry, which (being a devoted SciFi reader) I felt was the wave of the future. So I agreed to be a tester. That same day, another call came in, this time from the CEO of Voyage, an Englishman with a lovely accent and a warm, friendly manner, who was delighted that I was willing to assist. He explained more about his company and what they hoped to accomplish, and after that call, emails flew back and forth between us until we came up with a date and time for me to be picked up at my house and taken to one of our community centers where the first-ever testing would commence.

Fast-forward to Wednesday, September 20. A driverless car named Marge (a car not-quite-ready-for-prime-time and still needing a driver behind the wheel at every juncture) came to bring me from my house to the test site. Homer (the car which was all set to go, driver or not) was the vehicle that would be used for this preliminary testing. A third car, Lisa, is not yet on Villages streets, and a fourth is on the way. (You may have guessed by now that somebody in the company (namely the CEO) loves the Simpsons, and has named all their cars after his favorite characters).

Upon my arrival at the test location, and after being introduced to the Voyage Team (there were lots of them, both male and female), it was time for me to "summon the car." To do this, I used an app called Voyage, which the company is developing for both the iOS and Android Operating systems. At this writing, only team members have it on their phones, but eventually it will be available for all Villagers to download. Although the company has made the app accessible for VoiceOver, no one had ever seen a blind person use it to control a phone, so they found the process fascinating. A team member patiently walked me through the necessary steps of the app: choosing my pickup and destination points, summoning the car, listening as the app announced the car's ETA and then its actual arrival at the pickup area, and running through a three-step safety check once I was in the car. (In time, Voyage will be adding new features to the app, such as control of the car's heating and air-conditioning and the ability to choose music for one's listening pleasure.)

Once all car doors were firmly closed, and everyone was seated and buckled up, I double-tapped on "Ready to Go," because the car won't start until it gets that signal from the app. For my two trips that day, a human driver was behind the wheel. (These cars still have steering wheels, but driverless cars in the future will not.) At present, Homer can drive autonomously on only one straight road, but the ultimate aim is to bring people to any address in The Villages on any road. The car has its own built-in voice, so when we began to move it said, "Starting trip," and away we went, with the human driver in charge. After a few twists and turns to get us on the straight road, I heard the car say, "Autonomous Mode Engaged," which meant that the robotics had taken over and were now driving the vehicle. The ride was very smooth and comfortable, except for one thing: As the car braked, it would gently ease into the stop; but when it actually stopped, there were two slight jerks, one trying to propel me forward and the other trying to push me back, as if I were in a bumpy rocking chair. So at the end of the ride, when they asked me to give it a score (from five as the best ride to 1 as the worst), I gave Homer a 4. The Voyage Team was happy that I had given them this feedback, and as this is a software issue, they will be working on it to make the stops more comfortable. I pointed out that, especially in a senior community where people tend to have sore backs and hips, you don't want any jerks, even small ones. Also, any jerkiness could lead people to mistrust the safety of the car.

When we neared our destination, the human driver took the wheel again, and the car announced, "Autonomous Mode Disengaged;" and when we arrived, it announced, "Trip Ended." We had come safely to rest.

On my second test drive that day, I was able to experience Homer's ability to make strategic decisions. As we neared an intersection, there was a car that appeared to be planning a turn to the right (according to the sighted passengers in our vehicle)"but it didn't. Instead, it merged in front of us, and Homer had to stop quickly to avoid a mishap. Everyone said Homer had done exactly what it was supposed to do. Score one for Homer!

During the two-and a-half hours I spent with the team, I answered myriad questions: How could they improve their app?"make sure it speaks everything on the screen, always!; make it as simple as possible; don't give unnecessary, redundant information. What were my favorite apps, and why, and which ones should they emulate? (Apparently, I'm going to be their app beta tester until, as one member of the team put it, the app is sublime!) How much voice feedback would I like from the car?"lots more! What would I like their app and the car to do in the best of all possible worlds?"perhaps skip all the swiping, and have the passenger just TALK to a Siri-type device to tell the car what it needs to know. How did I rate my over-all ride experience, and did I feel safe when the robotics were driving? Here I had to smile, as I answered that I have been in cars with sighted drivers when I wondered if I would get safely to my destination, as they were either driving too fast, were totally distracted, or were veering from one side of the road to the other! I also pointed out that, as a blind person, I've had to trust sighted drivers all my life, and when I'm in the car with them, what choice do I have but to trust that they know what they're doing? So for me, trusting a robotic car is just another leap of faith. I answered their questions as best I could, although sometimes I wasn't able to give them a definitive answer.

Now, to describe the car: Voyage uses a Ford Fusion hybrid model, but their car has additional features, both outside and in. On the outside, there is a flat area at the back of the car with a rectangular metal box on top, which is the WiFi antenna that connects the car to the Internet so its driving capabilities can function. On top of the car, in about the middle near the sun roof, is a structure supporting an apparatus that spins round and round at about ten times per second, high enough that I couldn't have reached the spinning part even on tiptoes, though I could reach the structure below it. This apparatus, called lidar (think radar and sonar), is a sensing device which rapidly sends out millions of harmless laser beams in all directions, and by the speed of the beams and the direction they take toward the objects they encounter, the sensor lets the car know what's happening around it at all times. (Ooooh: Star Trek stuff!) On the front of the car, at about knee level, is a flat round structure that reminded me of a vinyl record sticking out a bit from the rest of the car: this is its radar. The square, metallic, box-like things on either side of the radar unit are the two front cameras, and there are two more such mounted on the left and right sides of the car. Two more cameras will soon be added to the back of the car as well, but Homer already seems to be doing just fine with only four cameras. The inside of the car looks pretty much as you'd expect, with steering wheel, shift mechanism, etc. But a small screen is mounted in front of the passenger seat, where the car's instructions and locations are shown visually.

My whole testing experience was exciting, energizing, and tons of fun! I was deeply impressed by every person from the Voyage Team. These people are young, vibrant, dynamic, passionate, and wholly dedicated to what they are trying to achieve. They made me feel welcome and comfortable among them, even including me in a team picture after the preliminary testing was finished. And they thanked me over and over again for agreeing to be their first tester, for helping them perfect their app, and for being a spokesperson for their project. I am honored and priveleged to have volunteered, and I look forward to many more adventurous encounters with the Voyage Team and their driverless cars.