Toyota rethinks autonomous vehicle safety after Paralympian injury

Toyota has announced a raft of new safety measures for its autonomous shuttle bus program at the Tokyo Paralympics following a collision that injured a Paralympian last Thursday.

An electric Toyota e-Palette collided with vision-impaired judo competitor Aramitsu Kitazono while he was walking on a pedestrian crossing inside the Paralympic village.

The 30-year-old Japanese was knocked to the ground in the low-speed impact, sustaining cuts and bruises to his head and body that prevented him from competing in a judo match on Saturday.

Although it’s not clear whether the vehicle was under manual or automated control, Toyota immediately suspended its self-driving shuttle bus program pending an investigation.

New safety measures announced today, before the 24-hour shuttle service resumes this afternoon, include a “system that can work instead of traffic signals to safely guide vehicles and pedestrians”.

“Together with the Organizing Committee Toyota has determined additional safety measures,” said the world’s biggest car-maker in an official statement.

“Toyota will increase the volume of the vehicles’ approach-warning sounds, improve system for manual driving, and educate operators in order to respond to the safety needs of the diverse range of people unique to the Paralympics.

“After taking these measures, ensuring time for the training of on-site personnel, and conducting test runs, the Organising Committee determined mobility operations to be resumed from 3:00pm on Tuesday, August 31, 2021.

“Toyota will continue to make improvements on a daily basis, even after the resumption of operations, until the closing of the Athletes’ Village for the Paralympic Games and will continue to cooperate with the Organizing Committee to ensure the safety and security of the athletes and other people involved in the Village.”

Tokyo police told The Japan Times that just before incident, the autonomous bus stopped after it detected a security guard who was close to a T-junction.

Japan Times said the bus collided with Kitazono, who had qualified for his third Olympic Games, shortly after it moved again “with the help of an operator on the vehicle” and attempted to turn right at the intersection.

Police said two operators and five passengers on the bus at the time were not injured.

Kitazono, who was expected to make a full recovery within two weeks, was competing in the 81kg judo class for B2 athletes. B1 is for those with total blindness and B3 those with low vision.

“We are very sorry that the accident has made many people worried,” said Toyota president Akio Toyoda via the company’s Toyota Times YouTube program after the incident.

“There was some overconfidence,” added Toyoda, who said he had visited the junction and checked video footage of the accident.

According to Reuters, the Toyota CEO said the Paralympics was a challenging environment in which to operate a driverless vehicle, thanks in part to the number of visually impaired athletes.

“It shows that autonomous vehicles are not yet realistic for normal roads,” said Toyoda.

A spokesperson for the Japanese manufacturer said: “We would like to express our sincerest apologies to the individual that was injured due to this unfortunate collision and we wish them a speedy recovery.

“We would also like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to those who use our mobility vehicles in the Athletes’ Village.

“All operations of the e-Palette are currently suspended. We are fully cooperating with the police investigation into the incident in order to determine the cause of this accident. In addition, we will conduct our own thorough investigation.”

Toyota is a top-tier sponsor of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, as part of a multi-million-dollar deal with the International Olympics Committee and the Japanese government.

First revealed at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Toyota e-Palette bus was developed by Toyota’s autonomous research division Woven Planet Holdings and promoted heavily during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Toyota bought US ride-share company Lyft’s autonomous vehicle program earlier this year and promised to press the e-Palette into commercial operations “within the next few years.”

While last week’s collision with the athlete occurred at very low speed – between 1 and 2km/h, said Toyota – the high-profile incident is a major embarrassment for the company.

Autonomous vehicles are being touted as game-changing high-tech mobility devices that will reduce 90 per cent of collisions, but car-makers are still struggling to make them able to deal with random events that can and will continue to occur on roads.

Toyota has in the past admitted that autonomous driving technology is better suited at least initially to commercial vehicles including trucks.