My review of glidance.

Thanks for taking the time to check it out and report back. 🙂👌

A. What are the materials used? This goes for everything, base, handle, and the grip.
B. The teliscoping handle/cane, when you extend it to your prefered hight, does it lock in to that hight by twisting, like how it is for lot of normal teliscoping canes?
C. When you said you felt motors vibrating, did the device actually propelled itself, or motion was solely based on your physical push to the device?
D. What was the wait like? For 2-3 mins, is it okay to heft it around the flights of stairs and such?
E. Did you test navigating in crowded areas? Was the device able to navigate busy footpaths, shopping areas and such? If someone accidentally steps on it, would it break?
F. How was the haptick feedback, and the speaker output? In a busy streats with lot of cars and such, would you be able to here this device without earphones?
G. Were you able to over-power the device in situations, say it's guiding you towards left, but, you want to go to right for whatever reason? I know you make the choise initially, but, once you select 1 direction, what if I want to change my choise?

The glide team is doing an impressive job of developing an assistive device from scratch, with such a deep community engagement. It's almost as though they are showing the potential customers, here's a product, what improvements would you like and going back to drawing board. Rince and repeat, and that seems like a solid strategy to win.
This is why I feel this might be successful and perhaps game changing.

How would this do in traffic?

How does this handle train platforms, specifically the gap between the train and the platform?*.

I know some places have tactile bumps before you reach the edge, but let’s be honest, not every station has them.

With a cane, it's easy to feel when you’re approaching the edge. How would this device manage that situation?

In the demo I had the other day, I was told that the current version will handle it the same as a step, so it will stop before you get to the edge, you'd then need to lift it up to get it on.
Another thing was that although they're still working on how they can get it to work out the gap between the platform a lot of people have told them they'd still like to carry a white cane with them for those exact situations, which I personally feel I'd probably do as well, because with the gap, you're always better off if you can measure that yourself I feel.

Am I understanding this correctly, that the handle can be raised or lowered telescopically? Do we know how small the handle can get? Also, did Brad say there was a grip at the base of the model for carrying purposes?

Thanks in advance. 🙂✌️

Brian, as a founding member we get surveys. One of these was how small do you want the device to be. Basically, it was agreed that when the handle was down it would fit under the seat on a plane. So not sure how big a gap that is but it is probably quite small. and yes a 2nd fixed handle should be there to pick the thing up.

Reading through this I just had one reoccurring thought. This sounds like a sad attempt at creating a robotic guide dog. It appears that this device mimics some of the same advantages of having a dog, but does so in a cold mechanized manner. It was said that the device is approx. 6 or 7 pounds. That is going to be annoyingly heavy to lug up flights of stairs or into train cars. I will stick with my loving and alive dog guide. Hahahahaha

6 or 7lb is heavy? What do you do with a suitcase? that can weigh 50lb. So it isn't for you fine but actually this could be the biggest mobility aid that we have ever seen and for me I'm quite happy to give it a chance.

Does this mean that the subscription is only required for AI features? So you can use it without a subscription but you just can't do everything.

I think this sounds amazing and your comments were really interesting. One thing that does worry me a little is how reliant it is going to be on an internet connection. My Meta Ray-bans often complain about not being able to access the internet. That's ok if I'm just asking a description of what's around me, but less good if you are reliant on it to get around.

I'd also be curious to know how much data it uses if it is constantly online.

I've got to say, though, that the more I hear about this the more impressive it seems. It feels so much more ambitious than any other mobility tech I've heard about. And the way the company is engaging with actual customers is fantastic.

Reading the train platforms comments, I was just wondering: how do guide dog users handle the gap? I've not had a guide dog and the problem seems similar? Does the guide dog user also carry a cane to scope out these areas?
I am eagerly awaiting being able to take it for a walk. And yes I'll be taking my cane along at least on the first trip

Hi,

Regarding internet. The internal workings have been designed so that even if you lose a signal i.e on the underground the sensors will guarantee that you won't fall down a hole or off a platform and will still guide you round obsticles. Just the map type functions would not be available until you get the signal back. In terms of canes, I spoke to them about this and they intend to have some kind of clip or something on the side so you can attach a folded cane to it just in case you need it.

Ah OK, so that's the free roaming mode or whatever they call it? I think it would make sense if you could download maps onto the phone to use. Maybe that will come later. It does worry me a bit if I am out and suddenly I lose internet and I was relying on it to navigate me somewhere.

I definitely like the idea of being able to attach a cane to the side of it.

I have only had limited experience with trains, but when I had my guide dog, I could always tell the gap by my dog's positioning and movement while boarding or Disembarking from a train. That may sound weird, but if you have ever worked with a guide dog, you will understand.

If you have any suggestions you can mail direct to gliders@glidance.io.

I wrote a review of driving Glide back in June. I did have a chance to fondle version 2 of the prototype at the demo.
The body of the unit itself is made of metal. The texture was matte and the metallic shell was quite strong, so not something that could easily be dented if bumped by something. The body itself was about the size of a can of paint, maybe a bit bigger.
the handle was a hard plastic with the column of the handle being metallic, similar to what you would find on fancy luggage, but much higher quality. there is a button in the column that when pressed, allows you to raise and lower the handle to your height of choice.

the wheels felt like tricycle wheels in size and were more like discs rather than having spokes like a bicycle.

There are a number of principles that are being adapted from the automotive industry to the mechanics of Glide which is nice to see.

I was just having a look around the Glidance site. I knew you could get a 30% discount on Glide by pre-ordering by the end of the year. I hadn't appreciated that you also get a discount on the subscription - in that it is $20 a month locked in for the life of the device, as opposed to $30 a month (estimated) if you don't pre-order.

I also see you can buy 1 or 4 years subscriptions up front and save a bit more there. I'm not sure if you carry on paying the discounted subscription after that time.

I was thinking if the initial price was $1800 (or £1400 in UK) and it had no subscription I would probably think that was reasonable for what you get.

I think my main reservation is whether I would use it enough to justify the cost. I think day to day dog walking is going to be better with a cane. There's just no need to introduce Glide to the mix, and I think it's better to maintain some cane skills. O do really want to try it though. The more I think about it, it just seems almost too good to be true.

I think it would be a bad idea to rely 100% on tech to get you around. What happens if you suddenly find that your battery on the Glide or your phone has run dry or if it breaks when you are out for some reason. Or you lose internet, or their servers go down. Canes are easy and cheap and if you follow old bear's example you can always improvise. I would be very wary of using Glide only.

In my case my usual thing is to go walk the dogs and the routes aren't that difficult so using Glide just feels a bit pointless.

However, I'm not proud of saying that I am very concerned about going out on my own. The Glide offers me the chance to move me out of my comfort zone a bit more.

I like how they are designing it so that you can attach a telescopic cane to it in case of emergency, of you find yourself somewhere that the Glide isn't working so well. Little details like that show how well thought out this is..

I'd be interested to know how well the Glide works if I am walking with my dogs - for example if I take them into town. Is it going to be confused because it's walking jus tin front of me or to the side and see it as an obstacle?

Anyway I fired a load of questions like that to the email address.

I am tempted to just go all out on the 4 year plan and think of it as a single big purchase without worrying about a subscription in the short term. I'll see what answers I get back, if any.

I showed my wife the recent video and she was immediately hassling me to get it. I think she'd love to get me out of the house more often.

On Double Tap they were also talking about possibly allowing the audio to be routed through the phone. I hope this will work as it presumably would allow you to wear your meta ray-bans and use glide at the same time. Which sounds awesome to me.

I pre-ordered Glide. And I am elligible for the $20 a month subscription as I understand it. When I did the math on the pre-paying subscriptions, the discount was not significant. Possibly less savings than putting the money on interest, at least at the time I calculated it here in the United States. I need more incentive than that to prepay for something that doens't quite exist, such as the big Founders discount I did. Plus I am happy to give them my support, even if it fails. But... I have my limits and pre-paying the subscription is it I guess. haha. I don't know if my musing help you decide; if you're on the fence so to speak I suggest splitting the difference and pre-ordering it and put the rest in a high interest savings account to pay the subscription if it makes it to market.

I used to have enough vision to walk around safely. Now that has gone the issue was I never really learnt to use a cane in the correct way. So for me, the two things I can't wait for even if the rest doesn't work is being able to walk down a street knowing I won't bang into anything. Even things like people leaving their car doors open or high up signs will be avoided. If all comes together being able to go to a new place and glide will be able to take me to that pub that everyone has raved about.

I'm not sure of your circumstances or where you are in the world, but have you looked into getting some O&M lessons? I doubt it's too late unless you have other issues preventing you using a cane.

None of us know if Glide will fulfil its promise. If it does, it is still a year away, and tech is never infallible. So having some basic cane skills may be useful both in the short term and long-term as a plan B. But also protects you should it not work out as hoped.

I remember when I was losing my sight I was always clinging onto the thing that was just around the corner that would solve everything. So far nothing has really done whatI was after and I feel better concentrating on what is there now not on the promise of things to come.

I'm in the UK and happened to get referred to someone from an eye consultant I was seeing at a local hospital. No one else had cared to mention it to me before. But if I was trying now I would look for local blindness organisations and ask the question.

Sorry if I'm interfering. I realise you are not me but sometimes there is help available but it's just not obvious unless you know it's there.

Not meaning to be a downer on Glide as it has got me pretty excited.

Ye'h in the UK. Been blind all my life and did have mobility training at school. Just never really used it. like riding a bike I can do it but it's just bad habbits wwe can get into. So, with luck this thing will work lol.

I have to admit I'm not really following my own advice. I am confident with my cane in some situations but it's a big difference to being out on my own which is something I don't do often enough. This is the promise of the Glide for me. I guess I feel I have very basic cane skills to fall back on in an emergency with it but if it broke down in the middle of town and I was on my own it is still a pretty scary thought.

I suspect you could get a few refresher lessons if you asked for them. I keep meaning to do that for myself.

I got a reply to my email to Glidance. Unfortunately they only pointed me at the FAQs which I guess I will go through again but don't think answered my main questions. Anyway, one thing they did say was: "We are focused on freestyle navigation for the initial release.  How the Glide integrates with mapping technologies and provides more advanced navigation is most likely a post initial release software upgrade (probably over at least a few upgrades iteratively).  There is no expected dependence on any data connectivity for the initial freestyling support."

So just wanted to point that out, that when this is released it won't have all the features we are getting excited about. We should probably not expect it to change the world on day one.

To me it makes the most sense to do freestyle and to solve the last 50 feet problem if that is possible. E.g., find the door, find the counter as their videos show. I think someone else pointed out in either this thread or an earlier Glidance discussion, and I agree, it is the last 50 feet, plus indoor navigation, that is the real problem. We have plenty of GPS things (I hesitate to call them solutions) to get close. Yes eventually it'd be nice for Glidance to just go cruising with all directions especially if it can do it haptically. The funny thing is when I first heard about it that seemed to be the focus and I was concerned it'd still not solve the final destination problem. SO it seems to me they changed course to work on the real problem and I am all for it.
I was curious to see if the new advances Apple boasted about in the dual band GPS it put in the Apple Watch Ultra to help with its own backtrack navigation, etc., was that useful in becoming more precise. In my personal tests the watch is still off by 20 feet. So I just don't think that GPS, at least what is available to the consumer, is going to solve the show me the door problem anytime soon.

I'm not sure I agree that this is more important the navigation.

I think I am likely to want to go out with Glide and be wearing my Meta Ray-bans at the same time. I would think the glasses could be able to recognise doors etc by then, but failing that I have Be My Eyes on there now.

Whereas navigation with maps etc is something that would work much better on the Glide and would be a much bigger deal for Meta to implement in the glasses.

Plus, and please don't hate me for saying this, but I think in many cases you can just bimble about looking blind if you are near somewhere and someone is likely to help. As opposed to needing to get somewhere in the first place.

I think being able to tell Glide "go to this specific shop? and it takes me as far as GPS can manage is massive.

Don't get me wrong, I want the last 10 yards thing too.

I dipped back into their FAQs and actually they do answer most of my questions. So, no there won't be a version that doesn't require a subscription, although I'm guessing there's nothing to stop them waiving the subscription for demo units to blind organisations.

One concern they did address in my email was my fear of Glide getting broken. The advice was just to get the details of the driver, and he suggested using the Meta Ray-bans or something like that to help. It definitely feels like the two things could work well in tandem.

And I've been thinking about the comment Travis made above whether the small savings you get pre-paying the subscriptions justify the extra up-front cost. It probably doesn't work out much better pre-paying, and the sensible option is probably not to bother, and possibly even wait a little after getting it before activating the subscription until it has all the features you need. But I have my own slightly stupid reason for wanting to start with the subscription. I think if I get the unit, then need to set up the subscription to start using it there will be a small psychological barrier to getting started - ie I know I will wait for the perfect moment to start trying it. Whereas if the meter is already running, then it's in my best interests to get going quickly.

Much as I object to paying $1000 for something and then not being able to use it at all without paying more, I think I am slowly getting over it. Given how complex the problem is that they are trying to solve and how the product will not be feature complete on day one, if they have a regular income stream from existing purchasers then it incentivises them to continue building new features and refining what's there, as opposed to immediately working on a glide v2.

I am getting quite caught up in the excitement of this and suspect I will be preordering in the next week or two.

Hi Mr. Grieves, You make good points. The only thing I'd say about waiting for someone to help is you must mostly be in a densely populated area. In my area you could be waiting awhile.
I'm not to sure about the Ray-Ban Meta guiding you to the door either. Perhaps when Be My Eyes AI gets integrated, if it does. Also recall that the Ray-Bans currently only process still pictures, not live video which I think could complicate the process. That said, have you tried the door detection that is part of iOS? It used to be in Magnifier but now is more part of VoiceOver. Anyway, I tested it in iOS 18 on an iPhone 15 Po, with a door that I know exactly where it is. And let's just say if I didn't know where it was, I don't think I'd find it with what VoiceOver was saying. The door was all over the place according to iPhone. Even the LiDAR assessed distance was wrong. Hopefully some day something will be reliable.
And for the psychological aspect, I understand totally. I've been known to try to figure out how to postpone subscriptions. I do hate subscriptions. On going servers, maintenance and hopefully further development costs though, and I'd actually have concerns about any of that happening without a subscription.
Thanks for the chat.

Bear in mind that if Glide does anything it will be over a year away, and in that time we might see more things happening with the Metas. Maybe taking a picture isn't going to be a great way to find the door but who knows where it will be by then. Be My Eyes would definitely be a good option though.

I had a little play with door detection on iOS when it came out but haven't used it since. I'm always paranoid about dropping my phone when I'm out so I like to keep it tucked away if possible. (Maybe I should join the lanyard bandwagon at some point)

Regarding the navigation, I can see myself using Glide when out with my sighted wife and it would be nice to have it guide us both to where we need to go, even if she has to help me with the door. I know I can do that with Voice Vista etc but it's not aware of how to get somewhere, just where it is. So bringing this sort of thing into Glide would potentially be much better. I'd love to be the one striding out in front leading us to where we need to go.

I know that's not the primary mission of Glide but I like the idea that it could give me an advantage.

Anyway hopefully Glide will chip away at all these problems when it comes out and within time we will have something that suits all our needs. And I will be very happy if/when it does solve the last 10 yards problem.

I think the only danger with Glidance bringing us all into the conversation early is that we have to keep reminding ourselves that this is potential and will all take some time to develop. The thing is it's looking so convincing now.

I have a hard time following maps sometimes because I get confused as to things like what side of the street I might need to be on. They are great for general wayfinding, but not specific. But Glide having access to maps plus the camera/other sensors could paint a very complete picture that may be a useful and specific guide, should things go the way it sounds. Six months seems like a reasonable waiting time, but I, too, will eagerly await maps as I don't really know any routs around my neighborhood either and the way my brain processes space (or doesn't, in most cases,) means seeking to learn these on my own is fiddly at best, unsuccessful at worst. Perhaps with Glide's help I could learn where I'm going and gradually bring freestyle nav into play? That sounds like it would be very nice.

I don't normally do this sort of thing. But.... preordered. And with an initial subscription. Let's hope this is as good as it sounds.

You can get your money back once launched if it isn't what you had hoped. So not much of a risk.

If you’re talking about tariffs in regards to the United States drama, that’s only going to affect goods being imported into the United States not out of the United States. It’ll only have an effect if other countries decide to impose their own tariffs on the United States.

The first rule about US politics ... is that no one talks about US politics. Having said that, soon as I win the lottery, I'm moving to the UK.
True story.