We’ve reached out to Toyota for any specifics of the investigation, whether this will impact its future mobility endeavors, and for more information as to who was operating the e-Palette at the time of the collision. We will update this post if we hear back.
Update 3:12 pm ET: A Toyota spokesperson responded to our request for comment by saying that, despite the e-Palette’s current suspended operations, “we have not announced that we will be stopping our efforts in future mobility.”
“In fact, we are waiting to see if operations at the Games will be allowed to resume,” the person went on, “although as of this writing, the schedule for resuming operations for e-Palette at the Paralympic Games has not yet been determined. (The Tokyo Organizing Committee would have the final say on this anyway.)”
They also clarified that the December 2020 press release linked above “is more about our future aspirations and not the current set of vehicles that have been operating at the Paralympics.” Instead, they pointed us to a separate release from October 2019 that reads, “The vehicle will be controlled by an automated driving system capable of operating up to 20 kilometers per hour at SAE level 4, supported by an on-board safety operator.”
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