Participate in a Survey about Driverless Cars

Spinal cord injury (SCI) survivors: Want to learn more about autonomous vehicles and provide your feedback to advance research?

Dr. Claire Williams and her team in Intelligent Mobility at Atkins Global, a design, engineering and project management consultancy in the United Kingdom, is seeking feedback from individuals living with spinal cord injuries about their views regarding the concept of "driverless car technology" via an online survey.

About the Survey

The idea behind these autonomous vehicles is to find a way to safely transport people without the need for someone to manually drive and operate it. However, the driverless vehicles would still require some input from its occupants, such as providing a destination, and would still enable users to retain some control, such as the ability to change route mid-journey.

Researchers are interested in learning whether access to these kinds of vehicles would be seen as desirable by people who do not have reliable use of their limbs or head. The significant benefit of driverless cars is that instead of having to physically interact with the technology, users can interact via voice commands, eye blinking, or a brain-machine interface.

In addition to asking SCI survivors to participate, the group also is seeking feedback from organizations that focus on multiple sclerosis (MS), motor neurone disease (MND), and stroke survivors, amongst other diseases and physical limitations.

How to Participate

To participate, you will complete an online questionnaire that includes a range of short and long-response questions. The exploratory questions will be to learn more about you and your needs, your lifestyle, and to gain your input in response to three scenarios that will be presented.

The questionnaire is estimated to take about 25 minutes to complete, and all information that you provide will be stored securely. All information will be anonymized if used in any reports so your individual information and responses will not be individually identifiable. Furthermore, a summary of all the findings can be provided to every participant, if desired.

To learn more about this research or to decide whether you wish to participate, you can contact emma.chester@atkinsglobal.com.

Visit the survey website today to participate and provide your valuable input.