{"id":2769,"date":"2017-10-10T09:45:24","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T17:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/?p=2769"},"modified":"2017-10-10T09:48:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T17:48:20","slug":"quadriplegic-driver-independently-operates-car-using-advanced-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/quadriplegic-driver-independently-operates-car-using-advanced-at\/","title":{"rendered":"Quadriplegic Driver Independently Operates Car using advanced AT"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Can a quadriplegic, someone paralyzed from the neck down, drive a car?<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2764\" src=\"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Project-SAM-2-1440x960.jpg\" alt=\"Sam Schmidt sits in driver seat of his convertible corvette wearing specialized sunglasses and a headset that control his vehicle\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Project-SAM-2-1440x960.jpg 1368w, https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Project-SAM-2-1440x960-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Project-SAM-2-1440x960-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Project-SAM-2-1440x960-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Race car driver Sam Schmidt\u2019s career came to an abrupt end when a crash in 2000 left him paralyzed. After 17 years though, project SAM (Semi Autonomous Motorcar), a car with various modifications, has helped Sam get back on the road. Here is how it works: to make it accelerate, Sam sucks on a tube that is connected to a pressure sensor. Blowing on the tube is like applying brakes, and that brings the car to a stop. To steer, he uses head movement. The head movement is picked up by an array of infrared cameras that track a bunch of white dots on a pair of sunglasses he wears. Voice commands activate things like turn signals. The passenger side has another set of steering wheel, accelerator, and brake in case there is a problem while Sam is driving. In order to not cause any abrupt stops, the engineers designed the software of the car to suppress sudden pressure spikes, like sneezes.<\/p>\n<p>Sam likes the sense of independence that this car gives him. There were very few things he had 100% control over in his life, and he likes that he can fully control this car. The video below shows how easily he can maneuver \u00a0his car by just sipping and sucking on the pressure sensor tube. Recently, Sam also got the country\u2019s first semi autonomous driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n<p>How much does this car cost after all the modifications? $1 million. (GASP!) So clearly, it is out of reach of regular people for now. However, it definitely paves way for hope, and in the future, when more manufacturers and innovators get together to make these modifications \u201cmainstream\u201d, \u00a0making these semi autonomous cars for people with disabilities would be much more affordable.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YyexjfEwp4k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>republished blog:<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/assistivetechnologyblog.com\/2017\/08\/quadriplegic-drives-car-sip-puff-voice.html\">QUADRIPLEGIC DRIVER DRIVES CAR WITH SIP &amp; PUFF, HEAD MOVEMENT, VOICE CONTROLS<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>image and video Source:\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/cars\/2017\/08\/project-sam-gave-a-paralyzed-racer-his-wheels-back-and-he-took-us-for-a-spin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ArsTechnica<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can a quadriplegic, someone paralyzed from the neck down, drive a car? Race car driver Sam Schmidt\u2019s career came to an abrupt end when a crash in 2000 left him paralyzed. After 17 years though, project SAM (Semi Autonomous Motorcar), a car with various modifications, has helped Sam get back on the road. Here is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,29,46],"tags":[5,22,76],"class_list":["post-2769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inventive-at","category-technology","category-vehicle-modification","tag-independence","tag-modified-vehicles","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2769"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2774,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2769\/revisions\/2774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}