Daily US Times: Toyota restarts driverless vehicles at the Paralympic Games village in Tokyo following an accident.
Services of the autonomous vehicles were halted after a vehicle hit a visually impaired athlete last week.
The athlete wasn’t seriously injured, but he had to pull out of an event because of bruises and cuts.
The vehicles will now have more operator control and extra staff to ensure they don’t hit any more people.
A member of Japan’s judo team, Aramitsu Kitazono, was hit as he was walking across a pedestrian crossing on Thursday.
Bacause of the accident, Mr Kitazono was unable to compete in his 81kg category.
The company said in a statement late on Monday: “The vehicle’s sensor detected the pedestrian crossing and activated the automatic brake, and the operator also activated the emergency brake. The vehicle and pedestrians, however, came into contact before it came to a complete halt.”
Toyota said that operators would now be given control over how fast the vehicles travel. It said there will be two members of safety staff on board, rather than one, to help look out for pedestrians.
New safety features of the vehicles will also include louder warning sounds, while pedestrian guides at busy crossings in the Paralympic village will be increased to 20 from six.
The carmaker company also said that it would continue to make safety improvements “on a daily basis” until the village closes.
Toyota also said it was co-operating with a local police investigation to determine the cause of the accident.
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