Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have given rise to a great deal of interest in different countries, such as in Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Japan, Singapore etc., where the introduction of those vehicles is currently tested. Those tests mainly focus on technological aspects, as well as the utility of AVs for cities and their inhabitants in general.
The present project however focuses on the potential of public AVs for persons with reduced mobility (people with disabilities and elderly people) whose needs are often neglected. As those people are at risk of social exclusion, the goal of this project is to improve their mobility through AVs. During the different phases of co-innovation of our service design methodology, we will involve people with disabilities. It will enable us to challenge people with disabilities’ social and economic exclusion phenomenon to improve their quality of life. This case of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) helps to understand its complexity and provides users’ with disabilities insights of usefulness, ease of use, and security perception related to the AVs in an urban setting.
To take into consideration their particular needs is a mission of the mobility policy of a city. In Switzerland e.g., the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as well as the Swiss law (LHand) ensure the same rights for people with disabilities and want to prevent, reduce or eliminate inequalities. In the public transport sector, the Swiss law mentions that there is inequality if the “access is impossible or difficult for people with disabilities for architectural or design reasons of the vehicle.” Furthermore, the Swiss government has set up principles related to station, stops, communication systems, ticketing systems and vehicles. Through this project, we contribute to a mobility service that takes into consideration people with reduced mobility by co-creating this service together with them and other important actors.
This project is original as it uses the method of phenomenology to get insights into the needs of people with disabilities in an urban context and aims to develop prototypes of AVs services that are co-created with and tailor-made for people with disabilities. The ultimate goal is to create a new freedom of mobility for those people thanks to AVs and design. The expected result is a social inclusion of people with disabilities and elderly people via AVs that are co-created together with them and other important actors.