Toyota announced that it has suspended the use of all e-Palette self-driving vehicles at the Olympic Village during the Tokyo Paralympic Games. This decision was made after an accident involving a blind pedestrian. After hitting the robotaxy, he was injured.
The autonomous shuttle e-Palette at the time of the accident was controlled manually, and the collision occurred at a T-shaped intersection. The robotaxi turned at a speed of 1-2 km / h. The victim recorded light bruises, he was able to return home from the hospital on his own.
Toyota saw the Olympic and Paralympic Games as an opportunity to showcase its new technologies. Autonomous electric vehicles without a steering wheel and pedals were used to transport athletes and personnel of the Olympic Games. The service was launched a few months before the start of the Games.
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda admitted that it was too early to implement the service: “This shows that autonomous vehicles are not yet suitable for conventional roads.”
Toyota notes that the curtailment of the work of robotaxy in the Olympic village does not mean the end of the e-Palette program.
Toyota introduced the e-Palette in 2018. The automaker said that such robocars can work either as fixed-route taxis or as mobile trading platforms.
In 2020, Toyota, together with the telecommunications company NTT, began to build a “smart city” Woven City in Japan. It will be located on the territory of the former Toyota plant for the production of looms Higasi-Fuji at the foot of Mount Fuji. The city is positioned as a “living laboratory”, where new technologies related to robotics, artificial intelligence and smart homes will be tested. The settlement will consist of wooden buildings partially built by robots and will be powered by solar and geothermal energy. On its territory it is forbidden to drive personal cars on your own – the function of transportation is performed by e-Palette.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation into the autopilot system used in Tesla’s electric vehicles. The reason for this was at least 11 accidents in which electric cars drove into parked firefighters, police and other emergency vehicles. The accidents killed one woman and injured 17 others.
Source: https://poleom.com/technology/toyota-banned-robots-after-an-accident-with-a-blind-pedestrian-in-the-olympic-village/