Autonomous cars could transform transportation for people with mobility challenges

Former Indy car racer Sam Schmidt has a million-dollar car that allows him to do something that people said he would never be able to do again – drive on his own. But he still can't wait for fully autonomous vehicles to arrive. Not for driving on the track, where he feels fully safe manoeuvring his modified 2016 Corvette Stingray by using special gears created for quadriplegics. Rather, Schmidt says he needs the safety features found in autonomous cars to face the intimidating streets of Las Vegas, where he lives. "I don't feel comfortable on the street," says Schmidt, who lost the use of his four limbs in a 2000 crash on a racetrack in Orlando.