Toyota Self-driving Bus Resumes Services At Olympic Village After One Collided And Injured An Athlete

Toyota Self-driving e-pallet shuttle bus resumes services at Olympic Village after one of the EV collided and injured an athlete.

Toyota was forced to makes big changes to the autonomous bus after hitting a visually-impaired athlete last week.

Improvements includes increase in volume of the Toyota e-Pallette buses’ approach-warning sounds.

Toyota also said operators will now manually control acceleration, deceleration, and stopping.

Last week, Toyota suspended its e-Pallette shuttle bus services at the Olympic games village after one of the autonomous EVs collided and injured a visually impaired athlete at a pedestrian crossing.

Fortunately, the Japanese athlete, Aramitsu Kitazono, wasn’t seriously injured, but was forced to retire from the Paralympic Games after suffering cuts and bruises during the crash.

Following the embarrassing situation, Toyota was forced to issue an official apology, with CEO Akio Toyoda noting that the crash “shows that autonomous vehicles are not yet realistic for normal roads”.

• See Also : Customs Intercepts Imported Car With Arm & Ammunition At Tincan Port; Driver, Clearing Agent Arrested

“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,” Toyota said in a statement.

Toyota promised to assess the cause of the crash and after series of investigations, the Japanese brand announced that the e-Palette shuttle service will resume within the Athletes’ Village with improved safety measures.

To prevent a future occurrence, Toyota said the volume of the e-Pallette’s approach-warning sounds will be increased and operators will now manually control acceleration, deceleration, and stopping.

In addition to increasing the number of guides at intersections from six to over 20, Toyota also promise to continue to improve the e-Pallette’s safety at the village on a “daily basis”.

• See Also : Toyota Suspends Use Of Self-driving Bus After Colliding With Visually Impaired Paralympic Athlete