With the first manufactured units now coming off the line, I am giving Glidance their flowers for hitting their revised Spring 2026 target. For an AI-powered primary mobility device, the first new primary mobility device in close to a century — that is a remarkable achievement. Still, as I have said all along: it has not worked until ordinary blind people are using it on ordinary journeys on a Tuesday afternoon.
As a Pioneer Glider from the UK, I am relieved Glide is launching here at all, but sad that it is delayed for us. I have had no word, but I am not expecting mine this year. I hope I am wrong.
I was reminded recently of the first Glide video I ever watched. I think it was the first one Amos made. In it, he said something that turned me into a believer. It is what made me trust him enough to give him my money almost two years ago.
He said:
“I think blind people need something that touches the ground.”
Simple as that.
That told me he knew what he was talking about.
Not because he had imagined blindness from the outside. Not because he had invented a clever gadget in search of a user. But because he is blind, and because he understands what it actually means to rely on a mobility aid to leave the house.
That is what almost every inventor in this category seems to miss.
Blind mobility is not just object detection. It is not “AI describes what is in front of you.” It is not strapping a camera to someone and asking them to process yet another stream of information while already navigating the world.
A primary mobility aid has to take part in movement.
It has to be physical. It has to be trusted through the hand, the body, the ground, the rhythm of walking.
That is why Glide has always felt different to me.
I am not happy when other devices struggle. I want every serious attempt at blind mobility to succeed. But like a lot of blind people, I knew very quickly that a wearable, descriptive, sensor-laden harness costing five grand was not going to become a useful mobility accessory. It might help with information. It might do some valuable things.
But it was not the thing itself.
And yes, I hear the Magic Torch folk have gone back to the drawing board. Someone may finally have told them that cosplaying Iron Man while juggling a £3,500 “spinner” and a cane or dog is not ideal.
I probably should have known where we were as a sector when seven people tried to buy my spoof device, The Crown of Thorns.
That is the uncomfortable truth here.
You can sell desperate people who have been let down by dodgy devices for decades almost anything if it looks enough like hope.
That is why Glide matters.
Not because it is guaranteed to work. Not because we should switch off our scepticism. Not because a good origin story replaces Tuesday-afternoon reality.
But because, for once, the core insight was right.
And the core insight was not only that blind people need something that touches the ground.
It was this:
Do not build something for us without us.
When I spoke to the founder of Biped, his response was:
“We asked professionals.”
And that, for me, is the whole problem in one sentence.
Professionals matter. O&M specialists matter. Rehabilitation workers matter. Researchers matter. Engineers matter.
But professional knowledge is not the same as embodied blind knowledge.
It is not the same as leaving your house in the rain. It is not the same as crossing a bad road with traffic in your ears. It is not the same as deciding whether to trust a device with your body, your safety, your confidence, your independence, and your ordinary Tuesday afternoon.
If you build blind mobility without blind people at the centre, you get devices that look clever in demos and ridiculous in real life.
You get the toilet seat and the magic torch. You get the ChatGPT cane that does not work in the wet. You get smart glasses with half the useful features of Meta glasses for twice the price. You get yet another “award-winning” GPS app that solves the problem everyone already knows how to describe, and no one has solved in the messy, bodily, boring reality of getting somewhere.
That is why I am expecting Glide with hope.
Careful hope. Sceptical hope. Tuesday-afternoon-or-it-didn’t-happen hope.
But hope, nonetheless.
Because this time, at least, the starting point was not:
“What clever thing can we build for blind people?”
It was:
“What do blind people actually need when they move through the world and how can we build it with them?”
Comments
Well Said
I love your post and how it illustrates the reality of what it means to develop something with the blind in mind instead of for the blind.
I’ve had the luxury of actually trying a Glide recently. It’s not perfect by any means. But it’s much closer to being perfect than you would think. The most important thing I would like to make people aware is that the concept is real, it’s working and it’s happening.
UK delivery
I think that if you were in the first 500 i.e a founder then there is a chance we will get this in 2026. Based on everything I'm optomistic that around September/October we may see movement. Lets see.
Looking forward to this
I preordered this at the end of the initial pre-order batch. I'm in the UK too and am not particularly optimistic about getting mine this year. But, to be honest, that's fine by me. I would rather have waited for it to be released before buying it but I wanted the permanent reduced subscription rate. So I'm quite happy for others to thrash it out and to start getting the initial feedback before I get mine.
I had a bad experience with WeWalk 2 which has made me a little anxious about this sort of thing. IE if something with low ambitions like WeWalk doesn't work properly, what hope do we have for something that promises the world? I'm excited to try it but I'm happy to wait if it means it ends up being good. Oh please let this be good.
I really like this company and how they engage, so channeling a lot of good vibes in their direction. Let's hope they deliver.
I agree
But we will speak once a thousand glide users have glided through rains, puddles, and mud pools, and once thousand people have kicked it. Hopefully it won't be in pieces.
That probably came out as a bit antagonistic, but, I am carrying a small hope for the Glide, also for it's price to eventually to come down if it proves successful.
Glide.
I pre-ordered mine, I've been to some live demos, I highly doubt i'l be getting mine this year as i'm in the UK but that's ok.
I'm so glad they are showing off videos now of it actually talking and they have actual models that are being made in production factories and not just mockups anymore.
Seattle founding Glider here
It's very nice to be local to them, I am in touch with the team and might have the opportunity to try the final version, I will report back if I do get the opportunity
Glide: what about steps and staircases?
Hello, I am currently not involved in Glide's in-person tests, not even demo, because at the moment its developers are focused on English-speaking areas. USA, UK, Canada, maybe Australia. I'm from the European Union -Italy- and I think it's a long, long way before it reaches us.
Sad thing on one side, but on the other, it's much better to wait than to have a prototype which has not been tested too much in real life.
My objection on this tool is very strong, though; as far as I have understood from newsletters I'm reading from founders, this tool has wheels. No idea on how heavy it is, but, what about stairs?
If there's a single step, you could lift it then put it down. But what about when you have a 20, 30 steps staircase? A wheeled aid would make you a movement impaired person. I can't think founders did not think of it!
If you lift the glide tool to walk the staircase, you have no warning on when it finishes and when it starts. Especially when going down.
And, to be frank, with new American politicians cutting off (or at least slowing down) accessibility federal policies, I'd no longer count on tactile warning on staircases any more. I want to be honest.
Then, when you walk into grass, or the woods, wheels can cut the grass and it can remain stuck into the mechanism. Not to talk about, well, let me be elegant not to disturb moderation, when humans or animals leave dirt on the street. That stinky dirt, which is soft... But it can be even softer, even liquid. Yuck, I'm in horror mode. Having had my feet stuck on those disgusting things and with "complicated" shoes to clean, don't make me talk about how horrible it would be to clean that stuff from the machine. To be kidding, I say there could be a logo in those assistive tech, such as "poo-free certified".
In this case I'd suggest even a human-shaped machine, at least for what concerns legs, where you can place some bio-degradable (paper or whatever) shoes, so that you can protect the machine from the dirt, and legs can go up and down stairs.
Re: Stairs
A backup cane is likely the best solution. They have designed a clip on that can hold a telescopic cane right on Glide. Of course when doing serious travel alone I usually carry a backup cane to my regular cane in my bag anyway. As for legs, yeah sure, you know how complicated that is? Perhaps one of those humanoid robots can be a guide some day. Right now they cost $650,000 USD and still can't guide you. It isn't the first things with wheels you know: strollers (some countries may call these prams?), wheelchairs...
backup canes
For most people having an extra-cane is the good solution. But, there are plenty of experiences, not every blind is similar to the other.
My ex-partner is blind as well and he uses just one hand as he has a neurological disease and a leg impairment - left leg is shorter than the other.
He's had a properly trained guide dog from 2006 to 2016, then that trainer retired and no other trainer has been able to prepare another dog for him. Now he uses the cane. And I was thinking this glide could be a good aid for a situation like his.
But, even without thinking of very specific and complex situations, I really wonder how it could be like this in 2026. Stairs and staircases are one of basic obstacles encountered during a travel. Even with 2 hands working, how could you use a backup cane, if you need to carry a heavy suitcase as well? Why should I, blind person, purchase an aid promising independence, spending money, then it turns me into a mobility impaired who needs help to climb a staircase or to jump up the train?
just say no
My opinion to the glide can: Just say no. Here's why: How, in our futures are blind people supposed to use this? It is vaery blindy first of all. Secondly I feel that what is the point if we are set to be getting the driverless cars by the way. Third I don't know about you, but walking on highways is not a good idea nor is it good to although good for blind people to have travel mechanisms that would go through drivethroughsand pay tolls it can seem very risky because of outdoor travel.
Driverless cars and dog dirt
Just because I can use a driverless car does not mean I'm never going to do any walking. I don't really understand what they have got to do with the Glide at all.
The thing is, the Glide won't be perfect from day one, and the hardware is not going to be able to solve every person's mobility requirements. Hopefully what it will do is give a lot of people options.
My fear is I get it, find I can't use it very well, blame myself and put it to one side and think "I need to learn how to use this better" and then never do. But that's probably just me - I always take things like this personally and blame myself for it not working. It took me a while to accept that WeWalk is just bad tech.
Regarding dog mess or similar. I don't know if the Glide is clever enough to steer around it. But I remember a long while ago they were talking about making the wheels swappable so you could use different ones for different terrains. I don't know if this made it to the final product, but I wonder if you could detach the wheels if you wanted to give them a good clean.
Can't say much but
Yes the wheels come off and eventually they plan to have different wheels for different environments. Oh and no guide dog in the world can be trained to dodge dog mess so that comparison is simply not valid.
Taking Risks and Trying New Stuff
That's what this is, ultimately. I bought Glide because it seems clear to me that this is how it starts, with an aid with computer vision taking the lead. I could very well be wrong. Other approaches have been proposed, that use various kinds of signalling to communicate obstacles, but that ultimately then require different compromises to work, either being worn on the body, or requiring the constant use of one hand, or imprecisely directing the user with vibration and sound. Any of these could be the real answer. Maybe stairs will turn out to be the Achilles' heel of Glide, but I do think it's going to take some actual experience to find out one way or the other. I'll keep a backup cane to hand and take that chance, at least in my own neighbourhood at first, where I'll get a sense for how well it works.
WeWalk? A valiant effort, honestly, given that it's just a remote-controlled app connected to a sonic cane; in that sense, not really much better than the gold standard of GPS navigation, albeit a bit more convenient to use. I still think the app should be able to do waypoint-based navigation in 2026 as, like it or not, sometimes it's still the best approach for certain routes in spaces without good tactile indications. My hope is that the information provided by direct visual contact with the Glide can perhaps overcome the worst consequences of that, of having for instance no shoreline. This will be familiar to dog owners, but I'm a cat owner, and so far cats can't be trained in the way that dogs can, thank goodness. So I'd not be hard on WeWalk, really, but the limitations of mainstream navigation tech and its imprecisions and inaccuracies.