Hyundai and Kia have begun developing mobility services that can improve the walking experience for transportation disadvantaged individuals.
Since September 18, Hyundai and Kia have launched a demonstration project for a navigation solution called ‘Universal Mobility 2.0’ in Singapore, aimed at assisting the indoor and outdoor mobility of transportation disadvantaged individuals, including those with visual impairments and wheelchair users.
Universal Mobility is a smart city project by Hyundai and Kia, designed to provide future urban environments and mobility solutions where everyone, including transportation disadvantaged individuals, can move freely.
Universal Mobility 2.0 is a follow-up project to the ‘EnableLA’ car-hailing service demonstration conducted in Los Angeles, California from August 2021 to February 2022, which aimed to enhance the convenience of walking for transportation disadvantaged individuals.
EnableLA, whose name comes from the word “enable” and the location Los Angeles, conducted a demonstration project where specially trained drivers provided wheelchair users with transportation in dedicated vehicles to safely reach their destinations.
To facilitate this, Hyundai and Kia modified vehicles like the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride to accommodate wheelchair users and made them accessible.
While EnableLA focused on developing solutions for wheelchair users, Universal Mobility 2.0 targets alleviating the difficulties and inconveniences faced by transportation disadvantaged individuals, including the visually impaired, before and after getting into a vehicle.
Universal Mobility 2.0 will take place over nine weeks at Enabling Village, a community and education campus for people with disabilities in Singapore, offering tailored path-based navigation solutions so that first-time visitors can freely navigate the indoor and outdoor spaces.
Transportation disadvantaged individuals can receive guidance to their destination within the campus through a mobile app that provides navigation based on their surroundings.
Especially for the visually impaired, who face the most challenges in walking, a dedicated mode will offer all app functionalities through audio, including real-time information on dynamic obstacles in their path.
To ensure smooth progress in the demonstration project, Hyundai and Kia have partnered with SG Enable, a Singaporean government agency responsible for disability welfare, and SAVH (Singapore Association of Visually Handicapped), a civic organization for the visually impaired.
SG Enable is providing the Enabling Village as the demonstration space, while SAVH will support the recruitment of visually impaired testers for the dedicated mode. The overall planning and operation of the project are overseen by Hyundai and Kia’s Smart City Promotion Office.
Hyundai and Kia are also collaborating with startups such as Mapxus and Ailytics to develop a walking assistance navigation solution for transportation disadvantaged individuals.
Mapxus, an indoor mapping company in Hong Kong, is in charge of developing digital mapping and navigation solutions for Enabling Village, while Ailytics, a video AI analysis company in Singapore, will provide information on obstacles within the movements of visually impaired users through CCTV analysis.
Kim Hye-Young, Head of Smart City Promotion at Hyundai Motor Group, stated, “Through the previous EnableLA project, we concluded that discovering auxiliary solutions for walking before and after vehicle rides is essential to provide complete freedom for transportation disadvantaged individuals during their entire journey. The Universal Mobility 2.0 project will seek to address fundamental mobility issues in the entire process of boarding a vehicle by collaborating with government agencies and the entire ecosystem, including startups.”
Furthermore, Hyundai and Kia plan to develop a comprehensive mobility solutions package for transportation disadvantaged individuals, integrating the vehicles from EnableLA and the walking assistance solutions from Universal Mobility 2.0 for potential application in future smart cities.
They also intend to continuously discuss collaboration plans with domestic and international government agencies to build an urban environment where transportation disadvantaged individuals can move freely.
Lee Sang-Jin daedusj@autodiary.kr