In January 2018, the start-up company Voyage announced that it’s testing a self-driving taxi service inside The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in Florida. A recent article in McKnight’s explored this news and what the benefits this taxi service would have for older adults’ autonomy.
According to the article, The Villages has “more than 100 dining options, eight large grocery stores, golf courses, 7.8 million square feet of commercial and retail buildings, three movie theaters, and more than 80 tennis courts.” This means that all 125,000 residents will have access to this array of destinations via the driverless taxi service.
Voyage has partnered with Camera, a company that maps hundreds of miles of road, to import data into the cars to ensure safety and efficiency. Voyage’s CEO, Oliver Cameron, believes this service will be as successful as a similar deployment at The Villages Golf and Country Club in San Jose, where there were only 4,000 residents, and that the taxi service will be especially helpful for older adults who have Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and vision impairment. Riders will be able to “call” for a driverless cab using an app, and the car will take them anywhere inside the 40 square miles of the community.
Residents are enthusiastic about the service.
Source:
Bowers, L. Self-Driving taxis come to The Villages in Florida. McKnight’s Senior Living. https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/news/self-driving-taxis-come-to-the-villages-in-florida/article/737057/. Accessed March 5, 2018.
