Blind take the wheel in this dune buggy

July 21, 2009 - 4:32am

blind vehicle (Photo courtesy of Va. Tech)

Mark Riccobono, the executive director of the National Federation of the Blind's Jernigan Institute who is blind, calls his test drive (seen here) historic. "This is sort of our going to the moon project." (Photo courtesy of Virginia Tech)

Nathan Hager, wtop.com

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Teaching the blind to drive is a real-life science project at Virginia Tech.

Students at the campus's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory accepted a challenge from the National Federation of the Blind and turned two blind men into drivers with their retrofitted dune buggy.

They attached a tactile vest to the inside driver's seat belt that conveys important information to the driver, such as speed and vehicle proximity to other vehicles.

The buggy also uses lasers to get an idea of where it is and makes clicks to tell the driver when to turn.

"It was great!" said Wes Majerus of Baltimore. He was the first blind person to drive the buggy on a closed course at the Virginia Tech campus.

"As far as the differences between human instructions and those given by the voice in the Blind Driver Challenge car, the car's instructions are very precise. You use the technology to act on the environment -- the driving course -- in a very orderly manner. In some cases, the human passenger will be vague, 'turn left' -- does that mean just a small turn to the left, or are we going for large amounts of turn?"

The Blind Driver Challenge comes to National Federation of the Blind's Youth Slam summer camp for teens from July 26 through Aug. 1 in College Park, Md.

Watch the video to find out exactly how the dune buggy operates.