Bhavini Makwana wins Consumer Champion award for championing accessible autonomous vehicles

Date posted: 27th October 2026

Bhavini Makwana, Policy and Campaigns Manager at Thomas Pocklington Trust (TPT), has won the Consumer Champion award at the 2026 Self-Driving Industry Awards, recognising her work to ensure blind and partially sighted people have a voice in the development of autonomous vehicles across the UK.

The award celebrates Bhavini’s commitment to engaging with self-driving vehicle companies, raising awareness of the potential benefits for blind and partially sighted people and ensuring accessibility remains central as this technology develops. The awards ceremony took place in Margate on Friday 16 October, celebrating the people and organisations helping shape the future of the self-driving industry.

Putting Blind and Partially Sighted People at the Heart of the Conversation

As autonomous vehicles become a reality on UK roads, they have the potential to offer blind and partially sighted people greater independence and flexibility when travelling. However, for these benefits to become a reality, accessibility must be considered from the outset, with the experiences of those who will use the technology helping to shape its development.

Earlier this year, Bhavini contacted Waymo after learning about its work with partially sighted people in the United States and its plans to introduce its service in London. She raised questions around accessibility, including how passengers would locate their vehicles at pick-up points, identify drop-off locations and use the accompanying app independently.

This led to an event where 40 blind and partially sighted people experienced a real-life robotaxi and shared their views. A second event followed, involving around 70 people. Bhavini also approached Wayve to create further opportunities for engagement with the industry and how its partnership with Uber will equally be accessible to people with a vision impairment.

The judging panel, comprising Mark Cracknell of Zenzic, Alex Bainbridge of Autoura, Dr Nick Reed of Reed Mobility and Dr Martin Dürr of Dromos, praised Bhavini for engaging with autonomous vehicle companies to highlight the needs of blind and partially sighted people. They recognised her efforts to raise awareness of the potential benefits of self-driving technology for the community and hold the industry accountable for its accessibility commitments, naming her the 2026 Consumer Champion.

The recognition is a significant milestone for Bhavini and reflects TPT’s wider commitment to ensuring blind and partially sighted people are involved in shaping the future of transport.

Reacting to the award, Bhavini said:

“Being recognised as a Consumer Champion is quite humbling. For me, both professionally and personally, as someone with lived experience of sight loss, I truly understand how and why autonomous vehicles need to be designed and delivered with accessibility in mind from the start. They must also incorporate safety measures and mitigations for any challenges that could arise. Continued conversations are already taking place, and further engagement is planned.”

Championing Accessible Transport for Everyone

Transport is one of TPT’s key areas of work. While we welcome the potential for autonomous vehicles to offer greater convenience, independence and freedom, we also recognise the importance of reliability and accessibility.

From navigating apps and locating vehicles to completing journeys safely, the details matter. Blind and partially sighted people need confidence that these services will meet their needs and that their feedback will lead to meaningful improvements.

As autonomous vehicles continue to develop across the UK, we will keep working with industry partners and blind and partially sighted people to raise concerns, share experiences and champion accessible transport. We welcome the opportunities this technology could bring and will continue to ensure our community’s voices are heard as the future of travel takes shape.