The Autonomous Vehicle Assistant (AVA): Emerging technology design supporting blind and visually impaired travelers in autonomous transportation

•Details the design process of a winning project in the inclusive design challenge.•Explores safe blind and visually impaired localization of automated vehicles.•Presents a novel computer vision, ultrawideband, and GPS based approach.•Evaluates approach with two user studies demonstrating positive results.•Presents future directions involving user training and implementation. The U.S. Department of Transportation's Inclusive Design Challenge spurred innovative research promoting accessible technology for people with disabilities in the future of autonomous transportation. This paper presents the user-driven design of the Autonomous Vehicle Assistant (AVA), a winning project of the challenge focused on solutions for people who are blind and visually impaired. Results from an initial survey (n = 90) and series of user interviews (n = 12) informed AVA's novel feature set, which was evaluated through a formal navigation study (n = 10) and participatory design evaluations (n = 6). Aggregate findings suggest that AVA's sensor fusion approach combining computer vision, last-meter assistance, and multisensory alerts provide critical solutions for users poised to benefit most from this emerging transportation technology.