Driving blind [Manufacturing Feedback]

In the summer of 2009 several young blind people in the United States of America enjoyed an experience previously impossible for them they drove a motor vehicle, retaining full control over speed and manoeuvring. The innovative technologies that made the venture possible included a laser scanner on the front of the vehicle to record details of the surrounding environment, on-board computing power to convert the scanned data into a digital 3D ´map´, the integration of the steering wheel with a set of headphones to enable the driver to respond immediately to audible prompts and an ´active´ seatbelt that communicated information about speed by means of a vibratory signalling system.