AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/29 Report--

A Toyota self-driving car collided with a visually impaired athlete in the Olympic Village in Tokyo, Japan, CNN reported. It is understood that during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Tokyo Qinghai Olympic Village is using the "e-Palette" self-driving car provided by Toyota to transport athletes and staff, and the e-Palette circulates automatically in the park 24 hours a day. On Aug. 26, a "e-Palette" car was driving at a speed of 1 to 2 kilometers per hour in the Olympic Village when it hit the 30-year-old Japanese Paralympic men's judo 81 kg class athlete Bei Yuan Xinguang. Two operators and five passengers on the e-Palette were not injured. However, the accident caused injuries to the head and leg of Beiyuan Xinguang and is currently being treated in the Olympic Village. His coach said that he had planned to compete in the men's 81 kg B2 class on August 28, but the accident caused injuries to the head of Beiyuan Xinguang and other places, which took about two weeks to cure, leading to his decision to withdraw from the Paralympic Games.

In response to this matter, Toyota said that after the accident, all e-palette except the e-palette used in the Olympic Games were discontinued. And will fully cooperate with the police investigation into the incident, in order to find out the cause of the accident. In addition, we will conduct a self-investigation into the cause of the accident and continue to coordinate closely with the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee to ensure that no accidents will occur in the future. Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda later posted a video apology, hoping that the injured would recover soon, and said, "cars are stronger than people, so I am obviously worried about the condition of the injured." In addition, it said: "this shows that it is not realistic to let self-driving cars drive on ordinary roads." At the same time, it is also explained that the cause of the collision is that the position of the e-Palette joystick is on the left and there is a partial blind area, which leads to the accident.

As for the cause of the accident, according to Japan's Asahi Shimbun, Bei Yuan Xinguang was crossing the sidewalk at an intersection before the accident.

But e-Palette suddenly turned right at the intersection and went straight into Beiyuan Xinguang. Fortunately, the speed of the self-driving bus was slow at that time, only 1 to 2 kilometers per hour, so the two operators and five passengers inside the bus were not injured. Local police also revealed that before the incident, e-Palette operators changed the vehicle to manual control. The operator of the car also explained: at the time of the incident, we saw someone preparing to cross the road and thought he would realize that a car was coming and stop.

Netizens also said: autopilot is a joke, and something happened again today. Such a slow speed can hit people, more than 100 miles on the highway, do you dare to use autopilot? After a lot of hype, new energy and autopilot are likely to be chicken feathers. If you can't do a good job on autopilot, you can't do it well.

It is worth noting that some time ago, Lin Wenqin, founder of a well-known brand, was killed in a car accident when he came to "autopilot", which once again pushed autopilot to the best part of public opinion. As far as "autopilot" is concerned, in fact, both companies and consumers have a certain responsibility, and autopilot may be realized one day in the future, but at present, there is still a long way to go to achieve autopilot. Compared with fuel-fueled cars, electric cars may bring more sense of technology, richer experience, and can indeed reduce the burden of driving, but before the real self-driving comes, no one should hand over their lives to artificial intelligence. The steering wheel should always be in your own hands. Of course, it is not known whether the e-Palette hit the athlete by changing the operator of the car to manual control or autopilot, which has yet to be officially announced.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat