AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION IMPROVING THE AUTONOMY

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION IMPROVING THE AUTONOMY OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND REDUCED MOBILITY THROUGH AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES Sandra Grèzes, Emmanuel Fragnière, Randolf Ramseyer, Benjamin Nanchen, Vincent Grèzes HES-SO Valais-Wallis, Institute of Tourism sandra. grezes@hevs. ch Techno-Pôle 3, CH-3960 Sierre, Switzerland

Improving the autonomy of people with disabilities through autonomous vehicles Innovation This project challenges disabled people social and economic exclusion phenomenon to improve their quality of life. It is crucial to investigate the link between disability and mobility, from the perspective of disabled people themselves. To our knowledge, no user experience involving disabled people has been conducted in the Autonomous Vehicles service.

Improving the autonomy of people with disabilities through autonomous vehicles Design approach When designing a new service, we analyse the cultural and operational contexts as well as the points of view of all stakeholders. Our Service Design Methodologyallows to design services that meet the needs and expectations of users. Phenomenology used in the exploration phase to study users’ perceptions will lead to new appreciations and understandings of such disruptive phenomena like AVs. Our approach is based on role-play and theatrical interactions, where services are created, staged, improved and their quality controlled. Our systematic and rigorous R&D for servicesapproach provides users with solutions that change the lives of users.

Improving the autonomy of people with disabilities through autonomous vehicles Relation to the urbanscape Transportation companies should include perception test benches of the phenomenon in their R&D function and tangibilize their effort to the public. At the same time, we want our project to contribute to the development of policy indicators and actions for the fight against social exclusion through a democratic debate. Relationship between participation in events reveal many positive outcomes resulting in solving several social ills and issues while building the social and economic fabric of the city of Sion. The project should participate in the emergence of social entrepreneurship encouraging people with disabilities in contributing to the local economies. As the AVs in Sion run totally on electricity, the projects allows also the users to participate and debate in the future search for solutions that are environmentally friendly.

Improving the autonomy of people with disabilities through autonomous vehicles Scaling up prospects Social exclusion of disabled people is an important issue in many cities in the world. The relatively small city of Sion in Switzerland that is already testing autonomous vehicles is an ideal laboratory for prototyping solutions. This project should impact social domains by the involvement of users with disabilities in a fight against social exclusion by improving their autonomy. It should create a political debate on urban mobility and its environmental challenges, technological acceptance of. AVs and artificial intelligence by involving the users with disabilities in the design process. Sion is the only European city that is testing AVs ina space open to the public and traffic. The results of our experience will be useful for all other initiatives.