A blind man has become the first person in America to legally drive a car around a race track in a test which could one day lead to all visually impaired people taking to the roads.
Mark Riccobono successfully navigated his way round the Daytona International Speedway in Florida, overtaking a van and dodging some cardboard boxes thrown in his way.
His SUV was fitted with laser sensors that passed data to his hands and sent vibrating signals telling him how much to turn. The cushion on his seat was also wired into the same system and vibrated telling him to brake or accelerate.
Ready to roll: Blind driver Mark Riccobono makes adjustments before driving a specially equipped car around the road course at Daytona International Speedway, Florida
The test was the culmination of a decade-long project to build a car that could allow blind people to one day drive on normal streets like those without any visual impairment.
The National Federation for the Blind said it was a huge breakthrough. Spokesman Anil Lewis: ‘We’re here making history, we’re here making sure that blind people have capacity.
‘You ask the average person what a blind person can’t do, they say drive. We’re proving them wrong’.
Mr Riccobono, 34, who has been legally blind since the age of five, was selected from a group of NFB executives to undertake the test, which took place before the Daytona race but on the same track.
Making history: Mr Riccobono drives the SUV around the course and past obstacles. Vibrations in the steering wheel and the driver's seat help form an image in the driver's mind
He got into a special Ford Escape hybrid that had been modified by students from Virginia Tech University with a ‘non-visual interface for a car that can convey real-time information about driving conditions to the blind’.
The aim is that blind people use their ‘own capacity to think and react to interpret these data and manoeuvre a car safely’.
Few details have been released about how the mechanism actually works, but the NFB said it created a ‘picture’ of the road in the blind driver’s mind.
Bristling with gadgets: The specially modified car has multiple cameras, sensors, alarms and touch pads that work together to give thedriver a 'view' of the road conditions ahead
Mr Riccobono said: ‘I pretty much shut out the idea that driving was possible, because I didn't want to focus on that aspect of something I couldn't do.
‘But I think this project is a clear example that when you dream big and put your heart and resources into it, you get to unimagined places.’
'We’re here making history, we’re here making sure that blind people have capacity. You ask the average person what a blind person can’t do, they say drive. We’re proving them wrong'
He added that there were still psychological barriers to overcome before people accepted the idea of blind drivers on the roads with everyone else.
He said: ‘Hardly anybody in the world believes a blind person will ever drive.
‘It's going to be a lot of work to convince them that we can actually pilot a vehicle that is much more complex and has much more risk.
'Now we have to convince society that this demonstration is not just a stunt. It's real. It's dynamic research that's doing great things.’
The NFB, an advocacy group of more than 50,000 members, hatched the idea for a car for the blind a decade ago.
In 2004 it began the Blind Driver Challenge through its Jernigan Institute, which encouraged partnerships with universities and manufacturers to create technology that would enable a blind driver to safely operate a vehicle.
Since then students from Virginia Tech have become involved and working with just $5,000 in initial funding, the first vehicle they built in 2008 converted a dune buggy they bought on eBay for $2,000.
That car featured vibrating chairs and vests and was debuted in the summer of 2009 during a program the NFB held for 175 high school-age blind students.
