Via iStockphoto / @grace_mh525/TikTok
A woman filmed an autonomous wheelchair coming to a sudden stop in Chicago's O'Hare Airport.
Some establishments are testing out AI-powered, self-driving wheelchairs for disabled visitors—and it’s not going great.
Accommodations for wheelchair users are frequently lacking. This is especially the case in air travel—for example, wheelchairs are mishandled by airlines at twice the rate of ordinary checked luggage. One 2022 survey found that almost 70% of those traveling with a wheelchair or scooter reported having experienced damage to it.
At the same time, the need for wheelchair support in airports is growing. According to the UK Civil Aviation Authority, requests for passenger assistance have more than doubled in the past 10 years. The International Air Transport Association’s accessibility fact sheet further states that assistance requests have gone up by around 30% annually in certain airports.
Handling all of these requests requires time and manpower. Alternatively, some airports have decided to offload the job onto AI-powered wheelchairs—and the results aren’t always pretty.
What Happened At This Chicago Airport?
In a video with over 267,000 views, TikTok user Grace (@grace_mh525) films her grandmother in a wheelchair.
“Everyone please watch this video of my grandma at ohare airport in their new Al controlled wheelchairs as she almost runs someone over,” she writes in the video’s overlay text.
The video starts with Grace’s grandmother already seated in the chair. While she seems surprised by the chair’s sudden movement, it appears to be smooth—until another person crosses in front of the chair.
When this happens, the chair comes to an abrupt stop. This causes Grace’s grandmother to bounce in her chair—and burst out laughing.
“Maybe I should stand here so I can do the sensors,” Grace says, jumping in to assist her grandmother.
The video was filmed in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
What Are These Wheelchairs?
The chair in the video appears to come from a company called WHILL. This company claims that their automatic wheelchairs can be found not only at O’Hare Airport, but in airports around the world.
Crucially, these machines don’t just use “AI” to get a passenger to their destination. Instead, the chairs utilize a combination of digital mapping, preprogrammed routes, automated navigation, and onboard sensors to effectively transport passengers.
These onboard sensors may have caused the issue demonstrated in Grace’s video. The company advertises that its 360-degree sensors can detect obstacles, including people crossing the wheelchair’s path, then automatically brake in response.
However, a 2026 peer-reviewed study found that this automatic braking can be a source of frustration for riders. The study found that some participants using the chairs reported “abrupt stops or jerky movements that led to brief feelings of instability or concern about falling.”
In response, one wheelchair user said they preferred human navigation over autonomous as “humans are better at anticipating when to slow or stop.”
This isn’t to say that the experience was all negative. The study found that 86.3% of respondents said they would use the chair again—and 71.5% preferred the autonomous wheelchair over a staff-operated wheelchair.
People Are Skeptical Of The Wheelchairs
In the comments section, users offered their views on these wheelchairs and the people who use them.
“That could cause some serious spinal issues in elders from short stopping like that,” speculated a user. For its part, WHILL reports that it had zero injury claims as of September 2026.
“People always do that with wheelchairs and scooters,” noted another, speaking of the man who crossed in front of the chair. “I push my mom around Disneyland in a wheelchair and at this point I think I’ll just keep pushing instead of stopping when people do that.”
Others had experiences of their own to share.
“They are SO slow.. I feel so bad when I see people having to use these.. like they’re painfully slow,” a commenter wrote. The authors of the 2026 study noted this complaint, stating that many users requested a speed increase.
“Almost got taken out by one of these at ORD recently. Nobody was in the thing, it was just going,” shared another. A WHILL press release states that, once a passenger has reached their destination, the chair can autonomously return to its base—explaining why this commenter saw a chair going through the airport without a rider.
BroBible reached out to Grace via TikTok direct message and comment, WHILL via email, and Chicago O’Hare Airport via email.