Robohub.org
 

Robocars: A natural fit for retirement communities


by
18 October 2014



share this:

independence

As people get older, they start losing their ability to drive: they start having trouble seeing in the dark and they stop driving at night; they also make mistakes, causing other people to hit them, and they are more likely to die in these accidents because they are more fragile. Eventually their accident rate surpasses that of reckless teens, and when their keys are taken away (either by a family member, or more occasionally by the state), their kids become a taxi service.

The boomer generation, which took over the suburbs and exurbs, have nice houses but minimal transit options. Without the ability to drive, many seniors fear being shut in, and find themselves forced to leave their homes.

The robocar offers answers to many of these problems: safe transportation for those with disabilities (eventually even mild dementia); inexpensive taxi transportation anywhere, including to and from low-transit suburbs; and a chance to video chat with the grandchildren while on the way.

It’s no surprise that retirement communities have been suggested as early deployment zones for robocars. First, these communities are filled with people losing the ability to drive but whose mobility needs are reasonably limited: if they can get to basic shopping, doctors’ offices, community centers and a few other locations (including transit hubs to travel further), they can do pretty well. Second, the street environment of these communities is relatively controlled, and in many retirement communities NEVs/golf carts have been deployed already.

Seniors do not tend to be early adopters, so the normal instinct would be to expect them to fear a new technology as dramatic as the robocar; just look at the market for simplified cell phones aimed at seniors who can’t imagine why they want a smartphone.

But sometimes necessity overcomes the fear of change and the barrier is broken. Pictures of grandchildren in e-mail brought grandparents online, as did video calls with them. Until the robocar came along, we were all doomed to eventually lose the freedom cars gave us. Now this no longer need happen.

Learn more about why seniors might be early adopters for robocars in my interview with the Wall Street Journal.

A version of this article originally appeared on robocars.com.



tags: , , , , ,


Brad Templeton, Robocars.com is an EFF board member, Singularity U faculty, a self-driving car consultant, and entrepreneur.
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com is an EFF board member, Singularity U faculty, a self-driving car consultant, and entrepreneur.





Related posts :



Robots to the rescue: miniature robots offer new hope for search and rescue operations

  09 Sep 2025
Small two-wheeled robots, equipped with high-tech sensors, will help to find survivors faster in the aftermath of disasters.

#IJCAI2025 distinguished paper: Combining MORL with restraining bolts to learn normative behaviour

and   04 Sep 2025
The authors introduce a framework for guiding reinforcement learning agents to comply with social, legal, and ethical norms.

Researchers are teaching robots to walk on Mars from the sand of New Mexico

  02 Sep 2025
Researchers are closer to equipping a dog-like robot to conduct science on the surface of Mars

Engineering fantasy into reality

  26 Aug 2025
PhD student Erik Ballesteros is building “Doc Ock” arms for future astronauts.

RoboCup@Work League: Interview with Christoph Steup

and   22 Aug 2025
Find out more about the RoboCup League focussed on industrial production systems.

Interview with Haimin Hu: Game-theoretic integration of safety, interaction and learning for human-centered autonomy

and   21 Aug 2025
Hear from Haimin in the latest in our series featuring the 2025 AAAI / ACM SIGAI Doctoral Consortium participants.

AIhub coffee corner: Agentic AI

  15 Aug 2025
The AIhub coffee corner captures the musings of AI experts over a short conversation.

Interview with Kate Candon: Leveraging explicit and implicit feedback in human-robot interactions

and   25 Jul 2025
Hear from PhD student Kate about her work on human-robot interactions.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence