JAKARTA - Entering the Tokyo Paralympics on the fourth day, Toyota decided to withdraw the autonomous vehicle dubbed the e-Palette from the event. This incident occurred after one of the vehicles hit a blind athlete who was walking nearby.
Quoting CNN International, Monday, August 30, this event also raises potential concerns about the limitations of autonomous driving technology, and beliefs about how reliable this technology can be.
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said in a video uploaded to YouTube that the malfunctioning vehicle had stopped at an intersection and was about to turn under manual control from the operator inside when it hit a pedestrian at 1 or 2 km/h.
Toyoda realized that the e-Palette showed that autonomous vehicles were not yet realistic for normal roads. Not spared, Toyoda also apologized. The athlete is known to be a Japanese Paralympic judo athlete named Arimitsu Kitazono. At that time Kitazono was crossing at the athlete's village when the e-Palette turned right and hit him at a very slow speed.
The athlete was injured in the head and leg and is now being treated at the athlete's village. As a result of the accident Kitazono will miss the men's judo match which he was supposed to participate in today.
Toyota first announced its plans to use the e-Palette at the Olympics in October 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the sport's organizers to postpone it until 2021.
Toyota plans to deploy a fleet of 20 vehicles, each of which can run up to 20 km/h at a predetermined speed. Notably, the plan also calls for a human safety officer if something goes wrong.
In fact, the autonomous vehicle has been adapted for the Paralympics, with the capacity to accommodate up to four wheelchairs. In addition, Toyota has also changed some of the interior of the e-Palette to accommodate color blind passengers.
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