Yandex Maps Adds Accessibility Locations Using AI
The navigation platform has expanded the number of places accessible to people with limited mobility.
The Russian navigation service Yandex Maps has increased by one-third the number of locations marked as accessible to people with limited mobility using artificial intelligence, the company’s press service said. A neural network analyzes photos of entrances to cafés, restaurants, and other public venues and determines whether a person using a wheelchair can enter. The number of places labeled “Accessible Entrance” has now reached 52,000. The label can be viewed directly on an organization’s map listing or requested in a chat with the voice assistant Alice.
Technology for Urban Accessibility
Previously, such locations were marked manually. Now images and descriptions are checked by the visual-language model Alice AI VLM and the large language model Alice AI LLM. The first analyzes photographs, while the second determines whether a location is accessible to people with disabilities. The AI system has already reviewed nearly one million photos.
To find these locations, users need to enable the appropriate filter in search. As Vaslina Drogichinskaya, head of inclusive services at Yandex, noted, modern technologies are also helping make the urban environment more accessible. The company added that 16 Yandex services have already been adapted for people with visual impairments, and maps in Russia can display the presence of ramps when building routes.
