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During the Tokyo Paralympic Games, the self-driving car e-Palette operating in the Olympic Village had an accident with a Paralympic athlete on August 26, and during the Tokyo Paralympic Games, the e-palette operation was temporarily suspended. Toyota President Akio said he was not in a position to say that it was absolutely safe to resume operation, and he was cautious.
The accident occurred when the e-palette tried to make a right turn at a T-shaped intersection in the athletes’ village. According to reports, the e-palette stopped in front of the crosswalk and immediately after the operator manually started the vehicle, the operator made contact with the Paralympic athlete who was in the blind spot. The visually impaired player fell by contact and suffered a two-week injury to his head and back, and was also absent from the game on the 28th.
According to the Toyota president’s explanation, the accident is caused by an operator’s mistake in judgment, and the responsibility lies with the operator. However, it is not surprising that an autonomous vehicle promoted as Level 4 autonomous driving needs to start manually after stopping at an intersection. Level 4 is defined as automating all driving operations under defined conditions.
Toyota is considering countermeasures such as doubling the volume of the speaker announcing the approach because the e-pallet is an electric vehicle and there is no engine sound. Related information can be found here.
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