Toyota resumes use of self-driving vehicle in Olympic village
Toyota restarted operations of its self-driving vehicles at the Paralympic Games village in Tokyo following an accident.
Services of the e-Palette pods were stopped after a vehicle hit a visually impaired athlete last week.
The athlete was not seriously wounded, but he had to pull out of an event due to cuts and bruises.
The vehicles will now have more operator control and extra staff to ensure they do not hit any more people.
Aramitsu Kitazono, a member of Japan’s judo team, was hit as he was walking across a pedestrian crossing on Thursday.
In a statement late on Monday Toyota 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 said that operators will now be given control over how fast the vehicles travel with two members of safety staff on board, rather than one, to help look out for pedestrians.
New safety features will also include louder warning sounds, while pedestrian guides at busy crossings in the Paralympic village will be increased to 20 from six.
Toyota also said that it will continue to make safety improvements “on a daily basis” until the village closes.
