Midway through 2025 and glide only Alpha 2.0?

I’m curious about this as well. They mentioned that everything should be going into beta phase in spring 2025. But spring is almost over in 6 weeks.
They have a goal that they would like the product to be released in the fall of 2025. Not a specific date. Range between September and December 2025. Ultimately the shows that plans are just guesses and nothing is concrete.

I'm from the UK but from what I understand, trump made this harder with tarrufs and all that so they had to find another manufactorer, so if this is released next year, so be it.

I preordered it because I tried it, i'd not have done that if I just heard about it.

I think they're now testing glide near one of the makers homes.

I believe, although I could be wrong, that you can ask for a refund if you've pre ordered glide, you'll just have to email them.

These aren't paid people, it really is a nice feeling to just be able to walk and not worry about much.

If you check out their roadmap which goes back to 2023 with dates and expectations by May 2025 they are more or less exactly where they said or hoped they would be. Also, this real world stuff what do you think the demo days are? hardly one person walkingaround in an empty room. Lets just be patient I'm certain if it turns out to be any delays Amos and the team will let us know. They have been very transparent about this so not sure why people may feel they are now being underhand.

I was never sold on this. It is a nice idea but until more real world tests are done I will continue to look at it as just that.

I want to preface this with the fact that I definitely don't want to be a downer and I am optimistic about many things. This release date has always seemed unrealistic to me as well as the controlled demonstrations of the device. My guess, and again I don't want to be a downer, is that this device comes out and is lacking a lot of the functionality that people thought it would have. Of course it's not intentional that they would under deliver but with the hype around the device and it's capabilities, I don't see how it is not possible

I'm also curious to know when the Glide will finally be released on the market.
At this point, I’m starting to expect demonstrations or reports about its use in the street or in public spaces.

Lots of commenters here have no idea what goes into building a product, especially one that is a new class of device which requires coordinating engineers, coders, product managers, regulatory certification, quality assurance testers, software architecture and hardware manufacturing. Add on top of that coordinating a team of internal staff in multiple time zones, raising money, managing cash flow and building your business case for investors. I've had a taste of this having founded two companies and launching a few digital products.

According to the team's last e-mail release, they are at the stage where they are about to test the software's ability to learn--crucially important before it gets taken out on the road before it starts learning things.

Yes, a beta version of the product is on schedule considering the product road map. Having run more than one software startup and launching a few digital products, delays or slow downs are inevitable due to market forces, economic conditions or just life happening to your team.

No one wants this product to come out more than the team at Glidance. Having tested the product at a demo day and seeing the progress over time, they are right where they need to be. If the ship date slips, I'd rather the product be fully baked rather than a junky trinket that sits in my house like so many other products for this community.

Are you one of the preorder folks? Frankly, if you know anything about tech and tech kick starters at all, you shouldn't be surprised about their progress. Yes, they might not be right on time, but they seem to be moving along fine. I don't know what made you so pissy. People just have to manage their expectations I know I could have my credit card company get my money back any time I want, meanwhile, I'm happy to wait. Having heard from some people that actually tried it, it also sounded promising.

It sounds to me like you've not used it and are judging the device on very old videos.

It also sounds like you think these people are actors or something, I assure you, they're not, these people enjoy the product.

Yes back then and even now, it's mostly in doors, but what you don't seam to understand is that these peple have flown all over the world to show off this thing, surely if it wasn't worth it they'd not do that and the blind peple wouldn't respond so happily when using it?

From what I read; they're testing it outside of one of the founders houses now and I expect it to work, it might have some issues but they'll fix that and it will work.

You've got to remember, these devices are being trained on data, they're not just being put out into the world and that's it.

They've hit all their milestones as far as I can tell, they have a workable prototype, they're testing it all around the world, they're training glide on datasets, what more do you want when it comes to the product being built?

Those of us who pre ordered it will still be testing a beta for a while, or if not that; then version 1, and we're fine with that.

This is one of those things you really need to get your hands on to truely understand what it can do for you. If you can't be bothered to go to another place to try this thing, that's on you, if you've got so much to do, then do those things and stop complaining about a product you're not even willing to go out of your way for.

Perhaps they canciled the zoom meating because they had things to do, peple do have lives you know.

You just come across as very negative when you've not even pre ordered the thing, tell me, why aren't those of us who pre ordered it complaining?

I'll tell you why, it's because we know what we're getting. We know the team is trustworthy.

No, it's not going to have all the features at launch, that was explained to those of us who pre ordered it. We know, for example, that we're not getting turn by turn directions when opening the box, that is going to come 6 or so months later and i'm completely fine with that.

Also you've brought up new york again, if these people in new york are going to kick your device, or try to get in its way after its steared you away from them, then that says a lot more about them than it does the glidance team.

As for you wanting to see what it does wrong, why on earth would a team publish a video focusing on that, when they can focus on the posatives.

You're not going to be seeing videos any time soon, unless they're more reals of peple saying how great it is, because they're working on making glide the best it can be and they can't do that and create videos at the same time, they're a very small team.

I completely agree with you, you're so angry over a device you: 1. haven't tried.
And 2. haven't pre ordered.

My advice would be to calm down, if you try it next year and find it works for you, great, if not so be it. Getting this angry over something you don't even want is just pointless.

I don't expect them to have random people trying it out on the street for safety and liability reasons, too many things can go wrong with a beta product which could sink the entire project. That said a video demo of someone testing it out in somewhere like a shopping mall or other pedestrianised environment would be appreciated.
Delays happen and they're concerning for a startup because they could run out of investment capital if it went on for too long, but I wouldn't say it's doomed already. A release of an inadequate product was always a possibility, that isn't new, and it's why I've taken a wait and see approach. I really want it to be good but I can't justify a preorder of that size on an unknown.
At the same time don't forget the guy behind Glydance is the same guy who brought us Seeing AI and Soundscape back when he worked for Microsoft. That doesn't guarantee a good product but it rules out especially egregious incompetence, which again doesn't mean the team is highly competent although they may be but does make me think delays are more complicated than them biting off more than they can chew.

I think once glide gets in the hands of those who preordered it; videos will start coming out.

The thing is, they're not as behind as @ash reign seams to think, those of us who pre ordered this thing know we're going to be testing version 1 and that their will be small issues here and there.

I'm very confident in the team as i've met them in person, if we get our devices in january or febuary, I don't think those who pre ordered it will be mad, I know U won't, but honestly, I'd not be surprised if they get the thing out near the end of this year.

Will it be bug free? I doubt it, but i'm ok with that, I'm glad to be one of the first people to try this new way of geting around for blind people, i'm excited about what's to come in the following years.

I think I know he works at Microsoft before but I didn't quite put two and two together. Even though no complete guarantee of success, I think this is a very good sign.

If they didn't preorder it, I don't know why be so bothered. Its very interesting to watch some in the blind community react to negatively right off the cuff about this product. My guess is that the blind community have had a fair share of smart canes that went bad and stupid projects and surveys from engineering grad students that went nowhere and many got tired of it. There's also a small niche of folks who are super anti AI at all cost. Its mostly the first reason though, so many people got really bitter. I don't think any tech will replace the guide dog and cane very easily, but it is inevitable that some day, something will, we just don't know which product that will be, but as a trauma response so to speak, some blind people will insist balls to the wall to the innovators that nothing will ever replace our canes and dogs.

People insisted a touch screen device could never have a screen reader until it could. Some things just seem implausible until they happen, especially when it's been tried multiple times.
Small startup projects have a failure risk where the first gen product isn't perfect and they never get the income to make a second gen. This can be a sad situation when they have a good idea, and even established companies can kill products that don't sell enough like Ambutech's ultrasonic glasses which had a cost of less than $100. The other side of this is when there are multiple competing products ina small space, like the number of smart glasses marketed towards us, and they can cannibalise each other's sales to the point where no product is successful enough to survive.
I want Glydance to be good, I really badly want it to. I'm just not building my expectations too high, both to avoid disappointment and to avoid the overhype problem.

@ash reign, You aren't interested in trying the device but will go on and on about features you've not even tried.

Just ttry it next year or whenever one becomes available to you.

The glide has a ring light so people can see it's not a toy, if they can't be bothered to look and are just on their phones all the time, that's on them.

I'm from London, it's a very busy place too but I don't expect those people to kick my device, I expect 99% of them to look at it probably realise there's some person pushing it for some reason with headphones on and, even though they may not know what it is, at least figure out that it's some kind of health aid.

If your so bothered about this device, email the team with your questions.

Anyway, I'm done here, we're just going round in circles and it's getting us nowhere.

There's a valid complaint to be made that they're pushing out marketing videos on youtube. Someone earlier said they're too busy working on the product to produce videos, but their marketing people obviously aren't. If they're too busy to make demonstration videos at least don't make the kind that tell people nothing and just make it look like your company has a giant ego. I'm not saying they have a giant ego, I'm saying that's the impression they're presenting. Releasing no videos would be better than pointless marketing fluff.

@Icosa, you are right. Technology will move forward, and a lot of it will fail. I personally am far from 100% certain that Glidance will be an actual success, but I've done my assessment and look at my pocket book and thought that they are worth gambling on.

@Ash Reign, why are you so invested in a product that you don't think will be a success and that you wouldn't buy? If a founding investor or kick starter is is concerned, thats one thing, but what stakes do you have in this venture? What explanation do they owe to you?

They have said before that Glide is modular, so things like the wheels can be replaced. If they say a feature like snow tyres is planned, that means it hasn't been developed yet, so it's not really going to be possible to show them off. I would imagine something like that might follow after the first release.

I think a little cynicism is healthy - none of us really know how this will work for us personally until we are using it for real. Personally it does feel almost too good to be true so I am not expecting it to be as good as it sounds. But I still can't wait to try it.

Part of what made me preorder is how well the company communicate and how keen they are to engage with us. I can't think of any other company that has gone to these lengths,, even to the point of showing off unfinished tech that might put people off but they see it as worthwhile because they want early feedback. It's hard not respect that.

It's fine to be worried, but I don't think suggesting that they are a scam is remotely warranted or fair.

My understanding is that autumn is a target not a guarantee. If it slips I will be disappointed because I am desperate to get my hands on it. But that's life - better to release something that works than something that doesn't. It doesn't particularly feel like this is on the cards, but if it is we need to accept that this isn't an unusual thing to happen - particularly with all the chaos going in in the US at the moment.

It's also worth remembering that the day one version of Glide will not be everything that they have promised it will be. It is a stepping stone. They have said this many times that the release is the start, not the end. They have asked us to make a bit of a leap of faith but I'm excited to go on the journey and find out where it leads and I have no doubt that they are being honest with us, nor that we will start getting some more useful demonstration videos from them in the near future.

What gets me excited is not what Glide are telling me, it's the reactions from people that have tried it.

Whilst I would encourage you to voice your opinion and criticisms of the design of the product, I think you should avoid words like "scam" unless you have anything to back them up. I am pretty certain that this is nothing of the kind, and their approach to this is the total opposite of anything shady.

I think if they had gone with robo legs instead of wheels it would put the price beyond any mere mortals like us.

I don't know much about Chinese robo dog. How much involvement are they having with their potential customers? Is avoiding marketing really a good thing? They surely will need a lot of customers to make this worthwhile.

It sounds like an interesting device. I just didn't want to toss so much money into something that is unproven. Asking for money this far before release seems disingenuous.

Are they certain it's a viable product? If so, how?

I think backers have backed a development project and not a product. that's a little slippery to me.

I'm not questioning their intent, I'm sure they want to make this work, I'm just getting a bit wary of pipe dream sales. In recent times, those things that promise the world don't tend to deliver it.

I'm hoping for the best, for those of you who have laid down the cash, but for me too. If it does all it says it can, I'll certainly be interested. I'd especially like it if it can spot dog poop.

There is definitely a bit of a pre-order trend where you are almost pressurised into paying for something before you can realistically make a good judgement on it. This isn't the only example of this - WeWalk and Echo Vision also spring to mind but there are others. I guess it is a necessary evil because they need some up-front capital, but as a consumer I don't like it. I also don't really care for the refund promise, as something like this will require time from our point of view to get used to it, then there will be the promises of soon to come patches etc and before you know it you are out of your time window. But the pre-order prices are usually so much better than the final price that it becomes hard to know what to do. Again I don't think this is underhand, I think it more like a KickStarter but it's not how I would prefer to buy tech.

I also agree that the stairs thing is a bit of a problem. I'm not sure how much it bothers me until I get there. If stairs have a rail going up, I will usually hold that and don't feel I need to use the cane much. The Glide should tell you where the stairs are. I like the fact you can attach a foldable cane to the Glide, but I'm not sure if it would be a great experience if you had to rely on it a lot.

I think it would be a mistake to think of this as a 100% perfect solution to everything. Nothing is perfect. If I go out with my cane, am I guaranteed not to walk into anything? No, there might be something at head height, someone else might be acting stupidly, or I might just make a mistake. Are guide dogs perfect? No, they are animals trained by people. Is tech perfect? Absolutely not. With the best will in the world this is not going to be perfect and anyone expecting that is likely to be disappointed.

Maybe there is just a different expectation of tech but I have never owned any tech that hasn't had some sort of problems. But what's the alternative? Say that tech is flawed so we shouldn't try?

But there is definitely a risk that even 99% perfect still could be the difference between life and death. But it's not necessarily any different with tech.

I don't think that a Chinese robo dog is going to be immune to this either.

What I like about Glidance is that there seem to be a number of blind people working there, including Amos. I would hope that they will be using Glide regularly themselves.

Forgot to add my vote for the dog poo sensor. This and horse poo are definitely not something you want to be wheeling around that fancy restaurant you now feel confident enough to go into.

Wheels are light, reliable and easily replaced while being an affordable option. Legs would be expensive with many more points of failure and much more prone to damage. I'm not saying robotic legs will never be viable but for a consumer product which has to keep a reasonable price point they're currently not. Legs would either be horrifically expensive in the many thousands or else be prone to constant technical issues while still being more expensive than wheels.
It's very much worth exploring as a technical exercise but I'd be very surprised if it could be productised for something that needs reliability at present, outside of military and first responders where the budgets are on an entirely different scale.
That said it would be interesting if Glydance could at least use its cameras to give some kind of assistance on stairs while being carried, even if that was only beeping when you get close to the top or bottom.

Lot of strange criticism in this thread. You know, it's ok if you are not interested in following along with the development of a new product. I'm not sure I've ever encountered a company publicly publishing their roadmap. https://glidance.io/product-roadmap/ It does look like, at rough estimation, they're six months behind their projections. That is not a surprise in the least.
It's good to see someone pushing the envelope and trying to improve life. When I first was taught orientation and mobility skills I was told here's a cane, it is all you need and you should be happy with it. Anything better or easier is the easy lazy way out and you should be ashamed. What a stupid attitude. If this was the prevailing attitude across the board we shouldn't have cars, planes, or electricity. Why should blind people be expected to tough it out and not also try to improve quality of life?
This thread seems to be asking the company to be in a catch-22. You want demonstration videos of everything it can do now. But only real live demonstrations, no actors, no props. I assume these should also be validated by independent journalists? How are they going to do this when the device isn't finalized yet?
Also mild curiosity on my part: why does it need snow tires? It isn't self propelled. Grip doesn't seem that critical. I think even on ice it should be possible to tell if the wheels are rolling or not, and on ice I have bigger concerns. No tire is going to solve the five foot drifts that get piled up in the intersections here. ha.
It seems someone took offense to a Zoom event being postponed and called it unprofessional. I don't know what industry they work in. Meetings are postponed, changed and cancelled all the time dealing with the fortune 100 and 500 companies I work with. Seems a strange way to evaluate a company's intentions.
As for wheels and the 95%. This is accurate as far as terrain. I have also been in the other 5% where it is bad for a cane. Ever tried a cane on a chain link platform? The smart money option is to carry a cane to examine the areas the wheels may not give optimal feedback. In fact I heard they are going to include a cane holder on Glide for your convenience.
Patience... We'll get there. If not Glide, perhaps the Waymo car and I'll not walk anywhere ever again. I look forward to the dream.

That's a cool idea re carrying it. You could also have find my on it for those times you go to a friends house and leave it by the door etc.

I think, it's a mobile computing system on wheels. It's going to have many interesting developments.

Regarding robot dogs, it might be something like the smart phone. If everyone has one, has attachments for hoovers, security patrol, working for the deaf, for amazon dropping parcels etc and so on, I imagine the cost getting south of 50 grand, or whatever it is to train a guide dog these days. I think the mini spot was something around 60 k, but this is all assuming a charity would fund such a thing.

I guess this is where this lot are aiming, subsidies from disabled charities which, it sounds like, is more prolific than it is here in the UK at least, outside education. There are still some very generous grants and support for students. *Looks wistfully at Oxford prospectus*...

I truely never felt pressured into pre ordering glide, I went to sight village, tried it and loved how smooth it was to, welll, glide across the floor, and that was their first version, this one is going to have a much quieter motor, much better training data, and more.

Then there's something like that device you ware on your chest, the harness thing, with the sensors? Now I'd not buy into that at all, I didn't even know it existed at sight village and my friend had to tell me about it when I got home.

But the idea of bleeps to tell me where to go? No thanks.

I think it's going to all depend on how you as a person want to navigate the world.

@ash rein, i'm truely trying to think of something bad about the glide that I didn't like, hmm, the only thing I can think of is going up and down the stairs, and actually now I think on it, Escalators, but then again these wheels are similar I believe to pram or stroler wheels so I hope they're ok.

All I can say on that is we'll see how this goes.

You'll be able to say, hey glide, where are you, and it will speak and tell you the battery Percentage.

by that I just mean the pre-order pricing is so much better, and you end up with discounted subscriptions forever. I think the Echo Vision is similar in that if you preorder you get a big discount and no subscriptions ever. I'm not really criticising anyone, it's just how it is. But I don't like having to weigh up something when I don't have enough information so have to take a giant leap of faith. Which I've done with Glide so here's hoping it works out well.

I don't think voice commands are part of the first release. They were an option in the "what should we work on next?" survey.

I didn't know the voice commands might not be a thing, I thought they were deffinetly part of the first release.

Let's see how that plays out when people get their hands on glide. Personally I'm not a huge fan of talking to devices like glide so that doesn't bother me to much, but I can see how it would be frustrating.

Umm ok. That's a hill to die on I suppose. I've had clients who scheduled the meeting then not show up to their own meeting. Sometime for legit reasons and sometimes not so sure. I was not registered for the latest meeting and still received an email notice stating technical difficulties. I just had a Zoom difficulty myself where it decided there'd be no audio on my PC where I'd just did the sound check in Settings 10 minutes prior. Seems believable to me. But again, only you can save yourself from this hill. Best wishes.

There used to be a joke back in the 80s the blindies had--I think it originated with a blind comedian--you tell a sighted person there's nothing to be afraid of about a blind person's cane. Then you get them to touch the tip. Then you ask, did I get all the dog poo off it?
What's the joke gonna be with this new contraption? It's a seeing eye vacuum cleaner?
Down here in my neck of the US, I would be concerned about the heat and UV tolerance. Plastic crumbles to dust. On top of that, we have extremely fine, clay dust that gets into everything, and the summer heat kind of bakes it on to parts. I have to clean electric motors and moving parts a lot. I just wonder about the maintenance on one of these in harsh environments, including dog poo...

You people who think you can get your credit card company to refund your purchase know that you have 30 days from the purchase date to request a refund right? Opportunities such as Kickstarter explicitly right in their terms of investment whether they will even send a product or refund investors they fail, it's speculative business and it's very risky, more often then not, turns out to be a loss for the investor! Failing to update, investors, happens a lot during a kickstarter however, forgetting then canceling!meetings should set off an alarm bell and I think Ash brings up a very legitimate concern in that regard!

These situations aren't controled anymore, when I tried out the beta; yes; it was a phone making the device stop, then I was able to try it without the phone stopping function.

Now that's a thing of the past, this thing is not going around cones and a controled programmed obstical course, these are still real environments with chairs, tables, people, book shelves, stuff like that.

Ash, mate, they are working on the device as we speak, they're not running out of money any time soon, if they were, they'd not be making a beta 2 device, using much better hardware and software, they would not still be flying around america, then to the UK, then to other places if they were running out of money.

If you really want this device to work as you say, find a demo day you can get to, get off of your bum and do it.

You're just spinning your wheels, as they say, you're going nowhere with this.

You are able to get off of your bum and go to a demo day, you just can't be bothered, it has nothing to do with other things you had to do, if it is that important to you; you'd make time for the day or days.

If you really want to get your questions answered; I've already told you what you need to do; email them, but I don't think you will, because you're just looking for a reason to be angry, over a device you've not even tried, surely, as you'd put it, you have better things to do?

The device is very very sealed, the wheels are away from the unit but are very sealed in, it's hard to explain what the device looks like but yeah, you bring up a good point, I'd email them about it if you're interested.

I asked them about the zoom meating and gave them the link to this thread. Honestly Ash, if this is your atitude in emails, I'd not want to answer your questions either, you come across as very annoyed that your questions aren't being answered to your exact standards.

I really am done here now, we're clearly going round in circles, if they reply, i'll post it but that's it.

As usual when threads are allowed to progress like this things get out of hand. Ultimately, if you believe you do and if you don't you don't. Nobody is going to change people's mind on this so lets just leave it. I know what I think as do others and as far as I'm concerned if you want to be crass about this then fair enough just don't do it here.

They did in-fact reschedule the zoom meeting. They rescheduled it quite literally a few hours after.
I won't give you my opinion on glide. People have there thoughts, and I have mine. I doubt we would be able to change each other's mind.
What I will say, is people on both sides have made good points and I am a founding glider so that probably tells you a lot.

Honestly, people do seem to get awfully cross when someone raises concerns about a product that most of the community seems very excited about. The point that ash makes about wanting to see this product's flaws is absolutely right. I remember back to the days of Mike May's GPS walks with the BrailleNote Classic in 2003 - walks that made the thing out to be much better than it actually was, in my view, but which at least were in a natural environment. And so what if ash's opinions are expressed robustly? The Glide defenders have been equally robust in their defence of the product, and good on them. By the way, I haven't pre-ordered the thing either. I could do if I wanted to - got the economic resources to do so without any difficulty - but I'll wait and see how the tech goes and if it would be any use to me before I commit. How, in the name of all that's holy, does that somehow disentitle me to have an interest in how things are going? I've been critical of ash Rein elsewhere (can't remember what the topic was now, but it was a while ago) but here, I applaud the dissent from the consensus. If you think it's a scam, say so. If you really have no evidence to support that, that can be factored into whether readers accept your judgment.

To be clear, I want to hear the positives about this product. I want to hear how bloody amazing it is. I also want to hear how it managed to get itself jammed in the gap between platform and train carriage, how it reacted when a high-spirited teenager just out of school after learning about climate change (or whatever it is they're taught these days) gave it a crafty kick, how it had Brad walking in ever-decreasing circles round and round the Digbeth flyover when all he wanted to do was go to Halford's...all this stuff is massively important.

I, too, think it's unprofessional to cancel a meeting without apology or reasons. The people have lives merchants would be onto something were glide a hobby, but it isn't.

apologies. Mrs Bingo has just quite rightly pointed out that brad doesn't need to go to Halford's. He's a blind fellow, after all, so no need to put extra air in the tyres of his vehicle or have this, that and the other tightened up in readiness for the MOT; but that did get me wondering whether you'll be able to take your Glide to Halford's sometime in the future for similar purposes? For those unfamiliar, Halford's is a retailer where you can get all sorts of odd jobs done, with vehicles in particular, staffed mainly either by people on work experience or graduates in neurosciences, law, classics and medicine who are on the hunt for a graduate job. Bingo's friend Ian worked at Halford's during the summer vac following our first year at Oxford together, back in 2001 I believe this was.