Toyota suspends self-driving shuttles after one hits a Paralympian

Monday, 30 August 2021

Toyota has halted all operations of its self-driving e-Palette shuttle buses following an incident where one struck and injured a visually impaired Paralympian in the athletes village in Tokyo.

According to Automotive News, Japan's Judoka Aramitsu Kitazono, was left with scrapes and bruises. Kitazono, 30, was scheduled to compete in the men’s judo’s 81-kilogram division for the visually impaired on August 28, but withdrew shortly after the incident.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda offered an apology to Kitazono, issuing an unusually stinging rebuke of autonomous technology, saying 'It shows that autonomous vehicles are not yet realistic for normal roads.”

Toyota has suspended the operation of all e-Palette autonomous shuttles at the Tokyo Paralympics following a collision.

But there is a twist to the story – while the e-Palette was designed to be fully autonomous at the low speed its operates around the Olympic venues at, the one that struck Kitazono is said to have been under human control at the time of the incident.

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While the e-Palette is fully-autonomous, it has at least one human operator on board at all times, with controls (on the left) for them to take over whenever required.

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Toyota adapted a number of e-Palettes specially for the Olympics and Paralympics.

Reuters has reported that the shuttle was operating in manual mode when the collision happened, with one of the two human operators on board using vehicle's joystick after it had stopped at a T-junction.

Initial report said Kitazono was crossing on the pedestrian crossing when the e-Palette, travelling at 1 to 2 kilometres per hour hit him, according to initial news reports, but a statement from Toyota later said he was 'about to cross' when the collision occurred.

The Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games were to be a global showcase of Toyota’s autonomous-driving technology, with a fleet of 16 of the battery-electric, automated vehicles being adapted specifically for use during the Games based in part on feedback from athletes about their mobility needs in the past games.

“Olympic and Paralympic athletes work tirelessly to achieve the impossible, and we wanted to provide them with a vehicle specifically designed and calibrated to fit their mobility needs during Tokyo 2020,” said Takahiro Muta, development leader for the unique version of the “Tokyo 2020 Version” e-Palette.

“Throughout the development process, athletes, especially Paralympians, helped us to better understand how we could adapt and upgrade the e-Palette to better meet the need for simple, convenient and comfortable mobility.”

First announced in 2018, e-Palette is Toyota’s first vehicle developed specifically for autonomous “mobility as a service” applications. It can operate fully-autonomously at speeds of up to 20kmh with at least one human operator on board at all times.

The “Tokyo 2020 Version” was adapted to feature large doors and electric ramps to allow groups of athletes, including Paralympians, to board quickly and easily.

'We are fully cooperating with the police investigation into the incident in order to determine the cause of this accident,' Toyota said in a statement.

'In addition, we will conduct our own thorough investigation into the cause of the accident and will continue to coordinate closely with the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to ensure that we prevent any incidents from occurring in the future.'

Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the incident.