Ensuring accessibility to mobility, regardless of ability or age, was a major theme of the 2019 SmartDrivingCars Summit. Reinforcing this idea, Aditya Belwadi, an attendee at the conference, spoke about the importance of designing autonomous vehicles for children. As a Chair for the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM, Belwaldi brings credibility to the discussion.
At the time of the above interview, Belwadi was also a Research Scientist II and Traffic Safety Lead at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Research Institute in their Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP).* CHOP, founded in 1855, is the first U.S. hospital devoted exclusively to the care of children. CIRP’s testing aims to ensure the safety of the smallest and youngest vehicle passengers. Their testing and research cover a wide range of use-cases, including child restraint systems, teen driving safety, and autonomous vehicles.
Regarding autonomous vehicles, compared to traditional vehicles, it is possible to take a much more passenger-centric design approach. For instance, the elimination of driver and associated hardware (e.g. steering wheel, pedals, etc.) allows for freedom in the arrangement of seats.
Belwadi points out that the design of most existing vehicles targets the 50th percentile of humans. Children clearly are at the low-end of that scale. As a result, children are subject to special workarounds in existing vehicles, such as add-on car seats and requirements to sit in the back seat.
The work that CHOP is performing will help designers and manufacturers create driverless vehicles, particularly those that are shared, that incorporate safety features as part of the design; safety that spans ages and ability.
*According to his LinkedIn profile, Belwadi is currently Crash, Safety and Occupant Protection/Biomechanics at Tesla.
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