As 3 September, the date of the first virtual Glide demo day after the "summer break" was approaching fast, yesterday I took a quick look on glidance.io website, and especially the faq section to check whether there was anything noteworthy. And yes there is, but notgood news. All the references to the EU were deleted from all faq entries that were about territories where Glide was planned to launch initially.
As I am Hungarian, and Hungary is an EU member state, this affects me, although not financially as I quickly opted out from the founding Gliders' deposit program back in summer 2024 (what a specially strong foresight I happened to have!). Here I inform everyone affected (though I suppose there are very few of them here) about this move with this post.
This means that EU will share the status with the rest of the world beyond US, Canada and the UK regarding Glide launch, so Glidance will announce if and when Glide launches there. Somewhen ... Doing a quick calculation it certainly won't happen before 2027. So Glide launch will embark on sort-of-a Godot-style journey for the EU too, as for the rest of the world also. It just takes a little bit of familiarity with post World war II literature to understand my Godot reference, as Beckett's play is absolutely world famous.
Frankly I anticipated this move in late spring already, because there were some signs of it. The most prominent was that all planned in-person demo days in the EU were cancelled by then. Such demo days were planned for one of Paris, Madrid or Rome, but none of them actually took place.
I suspect and understand the probable reasons. EU is a very diverse territory of 28 countries, from Portugal in the South-West of Europe up to the Baltic states in the North-East. Dozens of languages are spoken there which would have brought about a very heavy localisation workload, way too much for the small team at Glidance. Furthermore there are significant legal challenges too: WAT issues need to be looked after, CE certification is not easy and straightforward at all, and the strict EU regulations on artificial intelligence products may be in play too. Glidance most probably recognised that tackling all this would be way too ambitious for them, and if they had had forced initial launch in the EU, that would have delayed producing and shipping the first 500 units for the founding Gliders indefinitely, which seems to be the most urgent aim at Glidance nowadays.
It's a pity though that Glide also joined the bigger and bigger list of tech that are (potentially or initially) only available for the English speaking "big player" countries. Back in 2024 It was very sympathetic to me about Glide at first sight that it had been planned to be launched also in the EU in the first round. Hadn't Glidance had such a small-scale workforce, that could have been realistic eventually.
By Laszlo, 3 September, 2025
Forum
Assistive Technology
Comments
Shame
They sent round an email to anyone who pre-ordered explaining the situation and I believe they have offered refunds to those in the EU. It must be a bit of a kick in the teeth. I'm not sure what the reason is - whether Glidance felt like it would be taking on too much and perhaps it was sensible to scale things down a bit, or whether there were trading issues.
The other thing they said is that although they are still on track for a Spring release, this is only for those that pre-ordered early and everyone else is going to be drip fed. As someone who put their order in December I guess that means it will be delayed again for me too.
I still have faith that the decisions they are making are being done for the right reasons. They feel like a very open and transparent company and I feel inclined to stick with them. It is easy to lose track of quite how crazy ambitious this project is. When you compare it to all the other solutions, this one is on another level. So I think it is much better to release something late that works than go early with something that doesn't. However as someone who has laid down the cash, I am really desperate to get my hands on it. On the other hand I guess this means that others will be beta testing for me, so if I can just keep my patience in check it will probably end up for the best.
I will paste the relevant bits from the email below for anyone who didn't receive it:
Our projections still put us on track to begin rolling out Glide to our earliest preorder customers in small batches in Spring of next year, gradually increasing each month to ensure everything goes smoothly.
One significant decision we’ve made, after much discussion and planning, is that we have decided to focus our efforts on rolling out Glide in the US, Canada, and UK first, and postpone our EU launch.
While it was a difficult decision to make, we felt it was essential to ensuring that we can provide the dedicated level of focus and support we believe is needed for our earliest Gliders. We have communicated this in more detail directly to our EU Gliders community.
Thanks Mr. Grieves for posting the e-mail excert
When I asked for my refund of the founding Gliders' deposit back in July 2024, I also had myself removed from all Glidance communication channels, and opted to follow developments on Glidance website and e.g. here. So I didn't receive this e-mail, so thanks for posting. That also points to Glidance focusing and concentrating its efforts to at least deliver the founding Gliders' units in the already delayed, 2026 spring timeframe. Because if they don't begin delivering something to those early birds by then, then I am afraid significant and maybe irreparable credibility loss would take place towards the investors.
There is no doubt in that Glide is an exceptionally ambitious project. My only concern is that the communicated ambitions and the resources at Glidance (mainly the workforce scale) weren't really in sync from the beginning, and Glidance should have recognised that much much earlier. If I were them, I would have toned down the communication "volume" just a tiny bit back in the "early days" (2023/24) , and would have stayed a bit more to the cautious side. That wouldn't have risked finding investors, but would have been more realistic, balanced and down-to-earth.
Credibility
For me, the credibility of glidance has had decreasing this last year. Many delays, now this initial launch only in English -speaking countries, which for me feels like a kick in the teeth, etc. IDK, at first I was super excited by glide, it still seems incredible and I am looking forward to having one, but now I am happy not to have put my money there. I Hope This is not a Project that Never Ends, and That We Can See Glide In 2026.
agree with everything said here
I had to cancel my pre-order for financial reasons; was bummed at the time, but now I think it may have been a smart decision. Having spent that money with nothing to show for it for close to 2 years would have been very stressful for me. I know they needed to get investers, and I respect that, but there was tons of hype last year, and now it doesn't seem like much of anything is going on. I still get emails every once in a great while, but nothing like last summer. I don't even know if they're still doing periodic zoom calls to keep customers in the loop. Assuming Glide is released next year, I'll definitely be curious to hear demos and things, but as awesome as it sounds, I'm just not sure I'd benefit from it enough to justify the price at this stage of my life.
Re: Zoom
Yes, they are still doing regular Zoom calls and email updates.
There's a rule in software development that 80% of the effort goes into the last 20% of a project. This can often make it feel like you are making a lot faster progress than ultimately you are. I suspect with something like Glide it is relatively straightforward to show something with great potential, but moving from that to something that is actually ready for people to put their life in its hands is maybe a bit different.
Estimation is always difficult at the best of times, but much more so when working on something pioneering like this when you have nothing to base it on.
I believe they are still on track
Can't remember the exact details, but, on a recent email update we were informed that they would be starting shipping out units to a select beta testing few to try. That suggests they are getting into the comfort zone of this working. If I remember they said it would be over the next couple of months and still expect to start shipping in spring 2026.
Re: beta testing
I pasted the bit about the roll-out above. But I reread the rest of the email and they do say that some of those that have pre-ordered may be able to beta test between now and the release date. I still think that for most of us it will be spring or, likely, a little later, before we get our hands on it. I also am still thinking of it being a bit of a beta even when it is released - I presume that is why they are wanting to drip feed it, so that they can monitor feedback. Given how new and innovative it is, I think best results will come rom approaching it as a bit of a beta for a while after that.
Anyway here's the other bit from the email about the beta testing:
We’re excited to share that Glide’s Beta Testing Program kicks off next month! Beta is our way of testing Glide out in real-world situations through a controlled rollout of features, environments, and user scenarios while gathering critical feedback.
The first stage of Beta is focused squarely on the challenges our preorder customers told us matter most. Our recent survey to preorder customers overwhelmingly highlighted sidewalks and street crossings as the toughest parts of their familiar routes. From veering into driveways or avoiding parked cars to staying aligned while crossing roads, these are the real-world friction points we’re tackling first.
With this in mind, starting in September we’ll be walking familiar routes with a small group of Pioneer preorder customers here in Seattle, before expanding to more geographies and eventually shipping pre-release devices to selected testers next year. We’ll be learning alongside our testers as we go, and will keep you updated on each phase as we progress through to launch-readiness!
We know many of you are eager to participate. For now, Beta slots are limited and drawn mostly from our preorder community based on survey responses and locations. We’ll be reaching out directly to selected individuals based on our evolving testing needs - so the best way to get involved is to make sure you’ve responded to any surveys we’ve sent out!