If you want to sell me on ... I need to see myself and people I care about using it: autonomous vehicle edition

RantWoman's cup runneth over.

In particular, RantWoman's cup runneth over, in the vicinity of conversations about autonomous vehicles. RantWoman's cup runneth over with opportunities to stick her hand in the air and ask "Excuse me, could you explain...?"

Last week it was the quarterly meeting of the King County Mobility Coalition.

Among the presentations, besides one RantWoman contributed to crafting of, a presentation by someone from Uber. RantWoman apologizes for not noting the person's name. Perhaps it is just as well. Gentleman from Uber spoke of ambitions to take over for public transit systems. Gentleman from Uber spoke of autonomous taxi demonstration projects in Pittsburgh and in Phoenix.

One person spoke up and said something to the effect of "Please do not assume everyone has a Smartphone." No one in the room mentioned GoGoGrandparent.

Then RantWoman spoke up: are the vehicles wheelchair accessible? what about wheelchair users who cannot secure their own chairs?

Paraphrasing slightly: Oh, we mean to be on top of that but we have not thought about it. But look, in Philadelphia, we can dispatch wheelchair accessible vehicles through our App. And in the Puget Sound, our app will (drum roll please) give you the phone number for a local wheelchair transport company. (Our app will not give you any famous Uber pricing advantages. Our app will not revive you when you faint about the price. ..., but it will give you a phone number.)

(RantWoman to herself, ummm, if securing wheelchairs and strollers is not even on your radar screen do not even try to take over public transit systems!)

2. Voyage self-driving taxis
https://voyage.auto/

RantWoman happened on this item about a test of self-driving cars in a retirement community in FL. Look, um, if the people who run the retirement community bought off on the idea, who the heck is RantWoman to comment? RantWoman is a tiresome sorehead with many friends older than herself who get around as well as they do because of canes, walkers, scooters, and all kinds of mobility gear thank you very much. So when RantWoman hears the phrase autonomous vehicle demo project in a retirement community, RantWoman immediately thinks just how wonderful it would be to see actual people using these  devices in the promo videos for the project or the community. Alas, this is not the first and probably will not be the last time everyone shown in an autonomous car promo is hale and healthy with barely a pair of eyeglasses among the crowds. Welcome to Planet RantWoman.

3. Please enjoy a whole quite irreverent section here about an autonomous car demo, subjected as usual to RantWoman's standard for withering critique.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-living-computer-museum.html