Last year, quadriplegic former Indy Racing League driver Sam Schmidt was presented with the nation’s first autonomous vehicle restricted driver’s license. By May, Schmidt was racing semi-autonomous (SAM) cars with Mario Andretti.
Driving the SAM car that was developed when Arrow Electronics and medical researchers found a way to make it possible for quadriplegic drivers to drive only using head movements, Schmidt is now able to go 190 miles per hour.
The record speed was achieved during a Veterans Day demonstration at Aviation Nation, the annual airshow hosted by the U.S. Air Force at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The old record in the car was 152 mph, which Schmidt set in 2016.
“The theme of this year’s airshow was ‘Breaking Barriers,’ and that’s what our SAM car project is all about: breaking barriers with technology,” Joe Verrengia, Arrow’s global director of corporate social responsibility, said in a statement. “We want to highlight to the disabled veterans’ community how technology can provide them with not only improved mobility, but also inspiration and opportunities. We wanted to do our best for them, and to hit a new speed record on Veterans Day with the Air Force is definitely a proud moment for this project.”
The first SAM car used a system of infrared cameras and sensors that track head movement to steer the car. In the next version of the car, the cameras were upgraded to where they could respond to even smaller head movements as well as adding a mouth device to act as the pedal for braking and accelerating.
With all of the Arrow technology developed for the SAM car being “open-source”, there is a possibly that it can be applied to different applications for independent living. Arrow and Schmidt are currently looking into potentially implementing this technology into other vehicles to create SAM-enabled forklifts, tractors, long-haul trailers that could help expand employment options for disabled veterans.
