How one team challenged the status quo of accessibility with co:census.
Ford Mobility Case Study:
City of Detroit ADS Pilot Program
Written by: Ana Holschuh
The Project
In 2019, The City of Detroit won a US Department of Transportation grant to demonstrate a safe Advanced Driving System (ADS) by deploying a self-driving shuttle service to serve older adults and people with disabilities through collaboration with the community and leading mobility entities. To execute the grant, the City of Detroit aligned with Deloitte, the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, May Mobility and Ford Next’s Urbanite team to design, develop and pilot an ADS program that would serve the unique needs of Detroiters, specifically older adults and people with disabilities.
Older adults and people with disabilities (PwD) in Detroit lack adequate access to transportation solutions necessary to live a full and healthy life. In order to tackle this multi-structural problem, the ADS program proposed a three-tiered solution:
Understand the unique needs of Detroit’s older adults and PwD populations
Acquire and extensively test an accessible ADS vehicles
Deploy a pilot program in 1-2 Detroit neighborhoods
Ford Mobility partnered with the co:census team, onboarding with our Enterprise subscription plan to gain unlimited software access (for video transcriptions & AI-powered insights) and Research Design Services (to facilitate focus groups). Six focus groups were hosted in August 2022; these conversations were centered around an Automated Driving System (ADS) Pilot for the Aging population and for people with disabilities and aimed at understanding the challenges of the target population for the pilot, the opportunities with an Automated Driving System (ADS), and at deriving the value that can be gained from such a pilot.
After the focus group sessions, our Research Designers transcribed and analyzed stakeholder feedback. After reviewing trends, we identified three types of feedback:
Concern: A feeling of worry, anxiety, or doubt.
Opportunity: A potential gap or problem that ADS pilots can resolve.
Solution: An explicit idea from a stakeholder that can solve a problem.
The Insights
By opting for this community-targeted focus group, the co:census facilitated six key stakeholder focus groups, transcribed their comments, and gained insights on their key concerns with this pilot concept.
The most common concern that we heard was around the logistics and operations of the pilot program, which held a lot of intersections with concerns around rider accessibility. Users of the proposed pilot program expressed concerns with needing additional support with their mobility devices and carrying packages when entering the vehicle.
Focus group participants also mentioned various solutions that would aid in the implementation of the ADS pilot program in their communities. Most notably, participants mentioned the importance of identifying community liaisons and spokespersons to build trust in the community pre-implementation.
Stakeholders noted that the ADS vehicle could act as an opportunity to build dignity for riders going to pick up food at local food banks and other community services. Finally, participants highlighted that the ADS vehicle must be flexible enough to meet the varying and differing levels of disabilities of potential users.
The ADS pilot program was seen as an opportunity to receive door-to-door services and a new expansion of life-saving services and resources for people with disabilities. Participants noted the importance of building a routine and familiar rapport with the person assisting you in your mobility journey, and requested that Ford and the City of Detroit value these relationships with users when designing the pilot program.
After hearing from stakeholders and reflecting on the diverse and poignant feedback received, with their Enterprise subscription, Ford tapped the co:census Research Design team, who analyzed all of the feedback and recommended three avenues that Ford Mobility should consider in the development of the ADS Pilot program in Detroit by centering the needs of people with disabilities and older adults.
The first recommendation was to develop an ADS pilot with community stakeholders, requiring iterative feedback in the design process (i.e. initial rides from leaders in the community, developing routes with community buy-in, etc.). Secondly, to develop educational material for the community that clearly indicates standard operating procedures (SOP) for emergency situations, hazardous environmental situations, and safety driver support. Finally, to create a pilot that prioritizes abilities and dignity by identifying spaces of joy and preferred implementations of communication and language for the ADS pilot to be Abilities-Forward.
The Outcome
With a synthesized presentation developed by the Ford Mobility team, this pilot project was moved to Phase two by The City of Detroit and is now in development. Another community-informed plan is born!
