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Toyota Restarts Driverless Vehicles After Paralympian Injured
The company halted services of e-Pallette pods at the Tokyo Paralympics after a vehicle collided with a visually-impaired athlete.
Toyota will restart operations of its self-driving vehicles at the Paralympic Games village in Tokyo.
This follows a low-speed accident last week involving Aramitsu Kitazono, a visually impaired athlete and a member of Japan’s judo team.
Although the athlete was not seriously injured, it meant he was unable to compete in his 81kg category judo match at the Paralympic games.
The incident has raised concerns about the viability of driverless vehicles, not just at the Paralympic games, but moving forward.
In a statement given about the accident, a Toyota spokesman said: “We would like to express our sincerest apologies to the individual that was injured due to this unfortunate collision and we wish them a speedy recovery.
“We would also like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to those who use our mobility vehicles in the Athletes’ Village.”
Since re-instating the driverless vehicles, Toyota has deployed more operator control and extra staff so as to avoid a repeat incident.
The operators will now be given control over how fast the vehicles travel, while doubling the number of safety staff to two, with the extra person to be on look-out for pedestrians.
As well as this, Toyota has rolled out a number of new safety features that include louder warning sounds, while pedestrian guides at busy crossings in the Paralympic village will be increased to 20 from from the previous headcount of six.
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Speaking about how the incident came about, the Toyota spokesman said: “The vehicle’s sensor detected the pedestrian crossing and activated the automatic brake, and the operator also activated the emergency brake.
“The vehicle and pedestrians, however, came into contact before it came to a complete halt.”
The company has also pledged to continue to make safety improvements “on a daily basis” until the village closes.
