I gave a talk this week on responsible autonomy in airports.
Tonight, I watched an “autonomous” wheelchair strand a passenger in the middle of a crowded concourse at MIA.
No obstacles. Clear path. It simply stopped.
The passenger had to be rescued by a human-driven cart.
I build and deploy autonomy for a living, so I’m intimately familiar with this failure mode. So this isn’t a vendor call-out—it’s a reminder that real-world autonomy isn’t about labels or demos.
It’s about real human impact.
If a system can fail and leave a restricted-mobility passenger helpless, it isn’t autonomous. It’s just unattended.
Airports—and their passengers—deserve better.
(Originally published on LinkedIn)
