It is called e-Palette and supports all the needs of the athletes and staff of the Olympic Village. It has three different sizes ranging from 4 to 7 meters, while at the technological level it is equipped with cameras and sensors necessary for it to be driven without the need of a person.

Aesthetically, Toyota’s autonomous vehicle may be customized in different ways with a wide range of colors. Inside, it has a low floor designed for disabled people, something truly essential which is making a lot of noise at Tokyo during the Paralympic Games.

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The e-Palette Incident with a Paralympic Athlete

A few days ago, Toyota announced that it would recall the whole fleet of the e-Palette after one of them hit an athlete. Luckily, it happened at a very low speed and did not cause a major incident.

The autonomous vehicle was circulating at 2 kilometers per hour when it hit Aramitsu Kitazono, a blind judo player. After all this situation, it was determined that the cause of the accident was the human factor, because when the cars detect a pedestrian through their sensors, then the two safety operators inside manually resume the march.

Now, on this particular incident, one of the operators understood that the athlete would notice the presence of the e-Palette, not knowing that he was a visually impaired person. Of course, prior to knowing this, Toyota retired them from circulation to avoid similar incidents.

After analyzing the situation, Toyota put them back into the Olympic Village with a series of updates to learn from the mistakes. An exterior sound will warn of the e-Palette’s proximity when driving near a pedestrian. Moreover, operators will be responsible for starting and braking the vehicles manually, as well as receiving additional training that includes similar scenarios.

Written by | Ronald Ortega

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