Toyota Adjusts Self-Driving Olympic Shuttles after 1-MPH Accident
Toyota announced its e-Palette autonomous Olympic shuttles could be used again, with added security measures, after one of them struck a visually impaired pedestrian last week.
The automaker also released the results of its investigation into the incident. On Aug. 26 at the Athlete’s Village for the Tokyo Paralympic games, one of Toyota’s self-driving shuttles was traveling at only 1 mph when it collided with a Paralympic athlete.
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The athlete was taken to the medical center but was, fortunately, able to walk back to the village and compete in their event. According to Toyota, there were several factors that prevented the e-Palette from stopping in time to avoid the collision, even though the vehicle and its human operator had both detected the pedestrian.
Among these were the lack of traffic signals at the intersection and the low amount of guides. There were only two guides at the intersection, which Toyota says wasn’t enough to effectively direct all pedestrians as well as communicate with the vehicle. Additionally, the pedestrian was visually impaired and did not notice the e-Palette, whose automatic braking system did trigger but wasn’t enough to bring the vehicle to a complete stop before the impact.
Toyota says it is instituting three changes to the e-Palette that it believes will make it safe to use in the Athlete’s Village again. It will make the vehicle’s warning sounds louder, increase the number of crew members, and adjust the controls for manual acceleration and deceleration.
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The Olympic and Paralympic committee will also increase the number of guides at intersections to direct vehicles and pedestrians, as well as reiterate the rules of the walking environment to pedestrians. All of these changes will have gone into effect by Aug. 31.
“Firstly, 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,” the automaker said in a statement. “We would also like to apologize for any inconvenience caused to those who use our mobility vehicles in the Athletes’ Village.”
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda also stated the crash highlighted the challenges of autonomous cars. “It shows that autonomous vehicles are not yet realistic for normal roads,” he said — a refreshingly honest take.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.