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.
Re: WeWalk
Hopefully this won't be going into too much of a tangent, but WeWalk is 2 things.
As you say, there's the remote control/navigation/ai stuff. I've never really felt this was something I needed in a cane. I think phone + audio glasses should be all I need. Given that I probably will be wanting to wear glasses if I'm using this on the cane so the whole world doesn't hear my discussions then the cane doesn't offer a huge advantage, unless its sensors can properly help in some way. I think it does have a built-in compass so it's possible. But you are also restricted to their app for this - it doesn't control the whole phone, only the one app - and my experience of that hasn't been great. The controls on the cane are I suppose a handy way of being able to use aspects of the phone without having to bring it out. They are a touch clunky and slow in my limited experience of this, and I did find they would stop working sometimes because the app had given me an error that I didn't know about. The voice commands are good, but again I think glasses seem a more natural place to put this sort of thing.
The reason I was interested in WeWalk, though, was the object detection. Particularly at this time of year, I often get branches, brambles and whatever else in my face on walks, and I had been hoping that the WeWalk would cleverly help me avoid all of these things on my own. But my experience of this feature is that it doesn't work at all in any of the situations where I was hoping that it would. Possibly it gets confused by shadows, or maybe it thinks I'm 8 foot tall, but it just merrily beeps all the time whether there are obstacles or not.
Again the reason I brought up the WeWalk was more that I thought obstacle detection was a relatively simple feature compared to what Glide is attempting, but if even this is totally useless it makes me worried about how Glide would cope in these situations.
My experience with WeWalk just left me feeling like a failure for not being able to get used to it. They have suggested a call to go through it, and I have sent them videos etc, but other things in my life have meant that sorting this out is really not something that feels like a priority any more.
A stick is a stick, the oldest technology in history
The reason people like me say the WW is nonsense is partly because people have been revolutionizeing the cane since the early 90s and we have literally seen it all before, over and over again.
learning from the past ahsn't been a thing in a field where every sighted inventer sees expert feedback from blind people as ingratitude.
NOA/BIPED was really just a way of giving us the sensory overload in a toilet seat form factor. If you look into how a blind person and a long cane operate as a system, it is not hard to see why the laser/sonic/magic cane is a good idea and a crap product.
None of this means Glide wil work, but it does mean it is trying to work differently. It steers you away from and/or around obsticles, overhead obsticles included. TBH, I am looking forward to seeing how it handles headgerows myself. Sadly, I wil have to wait until next year to find out!
Have they tested it in snow yet?
Because let me tell you, in case you haven't experienced a bunch of it, snow messes everything up. Light snow sure, because it's slippy. But get about 3-4 inches on the ground, 7-10 Cm., and the fun begins. The ground is covered. There's possibly drifts. There's higher piles where the snow was plowed or shoveled. Seattle, which is I guess where the company is?, gets an average of 6.3 inches of snow a year. We get around 50, 1.27 meters.
Ah, they do mention it in their FAQ. "Glide is water resistant and can be used in rainy conditions. Snow and ice are challenging conditions, and while Glide will not be optimized for use in ice and snow at launch, this is a capability we will work to provide through over-the-air updates. We are aiming for -5 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit for the safe operating temperature of the device, and for the device to alert you if it is experiencing difficulties with temperatures."
Also stairs. "Glide will identify a staircase ahead and inform you whether it is going up or down. If you want to proceed towards the staircase, Glide will guide you to the staircase railing and inform you when you arrive. To ascend or descend the stairs, you will pick up Glide by the handle or stem and carry it. Alternatively for descending the stairs, you can gently wheel Glide down the stairs. We aim to keep the device under 8 lbs / 3.5 kgs to make it easy to carry."
About dogs
Just have to quip in regards to the person saying you can't train a guide dog to walk around a dog mess: yes you can. Mine always did so and it was quite convenient. In exchange you do have to clean up their messes but that's not much of an issue.
Anyway I hope the folks who get a Glide won't feel like they've wasted their money. Whenever I see someone say they want to replace the guide dog or the cane, I am done talking to them immediately. That's a very impractical and even cruel way to look at the world, deciding to solve a human made problem by throwing a machine at it. I have been saying a lot recently, as things which were accessible to the blind just a few years ago suddenly are not thanks to touch screens and other stuff, that the best accessibility device we have is other people. I would much rather just ask someone for a little help than rely on an expensive device that may or may not work and only in specialized environments. I'm quite happy with my dog or my cane and have seen enough of these niche devices claiming to be the next big cure for whatever problem we're having today come and go. I don't expect this to be much of a long term solution for anyone but at least it was something different and it's not the dratted smart shoes again.
Re: Dogs
I just wanted to say that anyone who talks negatively about guide dogs, has never worked with a guide dog. They are some of the most amazing creatures on the planet, and not just forgetting you from .8 to point B either. They are excellent companions, and can really lift your spirits when you're having a bad day.
Sadly, I had to retire my last guide dog in 2022, old age and such...
oh, and a well trained guy dog can absolutely walk you around all kinds of messes on the sidewalk.
True story. 🤨🦮
Dogs and canes
I think this subject can raise some surprisingly emotive opinions. In particular for guide dog owners. I have dogs and they are basically family so I can understand why it does trigger strong responses. Therefore I will probably regret this post and hope it doesn't offend anyone.
I don't think someone exploring another option is necessarily putting down the many benefits of having a guide dog, but we shouldn't also overlook problems. For starters, there aren't very many guide dogs available, and you have to meet strict qualifications to get one which many people would not meet. Some people don't like dogs. Some people are allergic to dogs. Maybe the guide dogs association pays for this, but owning a dog is a very expensive and often quite time consuming endeavour - you need to exercise and look after them, feed them, take them to the vet etc. I'm not trying to do guide dogs down, but just to say there are a lot of reasons why someone might not want one. Also, not all guide dogs are created equal - some maybe brilliantly trained. My cousin had one for a while but never felt safe with it - that may be his fault or not, but the point being that they aren't a magic bullet for everyone. I would imagine too that in some countries getting hold of one may be nigh-on impossible.
But as I say, I do love dogs and I am absolutely amazed by what they can do. I'm sure a blind person in synergy with a well trained guide dog is likely about as good a mobility solution as you can get. I don't have enough need to warrant a guide dog, and I do suffer from allergies so my current labrador is likely to be the last one I own even though I love her to bits.
I am a cane user, and they are also not perfect. For starters, it takes a lot of physical effort to move the cane about all the time - I often feel that my wrists are maybe too puny for this way of life. And canes don't run you around obstacles - they just help you find them, and only then if they are in the right place. Canes won't stop you getting a bramble in the face. Also I find that if you are some place really busy then it's often difficult to properly sweep without hitting someone, which can make it hard to work around. Canes require a lot of effort to use and quite a lot of skill to use well.
The great thing about a cane, though, is that it's simple - it touches something, you feel it and probably hear it. It's not going to go out of mobile range, it's not going to lose bluetooth connectivity to your phone randomly, it's not going to suddenly run out of battery. It's not going to imagine an obstacle that isn't there. It just does its specific function and that's it. There is something extremely pleasing about the low tech.
Again the point of this post is not to criticise either the cane or the dog, just to make the point that exploring other options in this space is no bad thing. Whether tech is ever going to be reliable enough to perform this task is something we will have to wait and see. But if we are entering in a world of driverless cars, it does not feel a stretch to me to think that pedestrians could have something similar.
I'm as guilty as anyone for this, but I think when something new comes along it is is better to be thinking in terms of "what can this do?" and less about "what can't this do?". It isn't going to be perfect for everything. It's probably not going to be something you can just take out of the box and be an expert in. It definitely shouldn't be an alternative for having O&M skills. It definitely should be used with a backup option. I think they were going to add a way to attach a telescopic cane to it so it was easy to take along because they talk to the people who are going to use it and respond.
I think if anyone in this space is going to make something useful in the short term, it is here. This is the only company that seems to be really trying to understand the problem from our point of view.
Sure I'm anxious about how well it's going to work for me personally, but I am excited to try it. It won't be for everyone, but let's all keep an open mind and see where this goes. Maybe this particular model won't be the perfect solution, but it might be the start of the journey.
I don't think people who use a cane or guide dog should be threatened by it either. I don't think anyone has said that Glide makes them redundant - it's always been referred to as the third option which is exactly how it should be.