• by Tanya Gazdik , April 14, 2024

Honda is launching a web app utilizing artificial intelligence technology that aims, to expand the joy of mobility by offering real-time scenic audio descriptions for blind and visually impaired passengers taking road trips.

Honda Scenic Audio is the world’s first AI-powered accessibility app to enhance journeys in motor vehicles for the blind and visually impaired.

It uses a combination of computer vision, generative AI, satellite imaging, and a multitude of other technologies and sources, including geotargeting and weather reports, to create a meticulously detailed, scenic narrative of what is taking place outside of the car window on a road trip or scenic drive, going beyond the basics of dictating the scenery.  

For the blind and visually impaired, audio descriptions in media and entertainment enable inclusive experiences. Honda Scenic Audio was built to create multifaceted narratives with a literary tone and expressive descriptions with nuanced adjectives, recognizable sounds, comparisons of heights and terrain and even the temperature outside. 

Even with advancements in digital services and navigation, real-time multifaceted scenic descriptions on the road aren’t available for blind and visually impaired passengers, according to the automaker. Honda’s goal is to ensure that every passenger has the same equity as the driver when it comes to a road trip experience.           

The Honda Scenic Audio app, currently in beta-testing with the blind a visually impaired community, is developed in partnership Perkins School for the Blind’s global DisabilityTech community. 

The app complements Honda’s long-standing commitment to helping the blind and visually impaired through local and corporate CSR efforts, including a three-decades long relationship with the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind (AIDB).

The effort ties into the automaker’s “Power of Dreams” philosophy, says Phil Hruska, senior manager, Honda marketing.

 “We apply our original technologies and ideas to realize mobility that enables our customers to enjoy life with more freedom, more convenience and more fun,” Hruska says in a release. “By creating a detailed narrative of the roadside views during a scenic driving experience, the Honda Scenic Audio app can help to open imaginations and enhance the joy of car travel to blind and visually impaired passengers.”