Visually impaired Paralympian hit by self-driving bus

The Mainichi daily said the bus automatically stopped but the operators pressed the start button as they did not think he would walk out on to the road.

The headline should read, "Operators of Self-driving Bus Mistakenly Hit Athlete Due to Error."

Misleading.

Headline should read ‘Self-driving bus stops for pedestrian at crossing; operator overrides system and causes accident’

thought he would stop walking as the bus was approaching

Traffic law says the driver should stop at a pedestrian crossing and allow the pedestrian to cross, not guess whether he will decide to walk.

Using these crossings (the ones without signals) in Japan is often a game of chicken.

The Mainichi daily said the bus automatically stopped but the operators pressed the start button as they did not think he would walk out on to the road.

so the headline is a lie, the bus stopped but the human operator overrid the controls

PR nightmare for Toyota. What a dumb project. It's called "driverless" but there are in fact human drivers on board, who are called "operators."

the bus automatically stopped but the operators pressed the start button

On the assumption the technology was wrong. So what is the point of this?

That tells you all you need to know about Japanese drivers. He was at a pedestrian crossing and the bus stopped automatically….but as most Japanese drivers never stop at pedestrian crossings the human overruled the bus and hit a blind/partially sited person. The person who overruled the bus stopping should be charged with dangerous driving resulting in injury at the very least.

The problem is that the pedestrians don't observe that rule either.

A lot of pedestrians don’t know the law or are too afraid to cross. Like I said, it’s like a game of chicken. It shouldn’t be.

The Mainichi daily said the bus automatically stopped but the operators pressed the start button as they did not think he would walk out on to the road.

This is a stupid human error.

Well, the bus did stopped as it was supposed to be. It was the human that re-started the bus and causes the accident. Also don't blame him for not using a cane, he is crossing the road using road crossings, vehicles by right should stop for pedestrian. Also what does the traffic control guard does? Either stop the pedestrian from crossing or vehicles from continue on.. did he do any of it?

The bus didn't do anything wrong. The two (?) operators did.

The fact that AFP published this with the fake headline says everything. It’s fake crap like this that can also push the population into believing anything, especially wars: “babies being thrown out on incubators”. Why folks still trust these hacks says a lot.

... they noticed the athlete, but thought he would stop walking as the bus was approaching.

This really gets me upset, most drivers here make this assumption!! WE PEDESTRIANS HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY!!! (oh, and get off your phone!)

Despite the misleading headline this only helps the argument for replacing human drivers with machines. The machine did its job. The 2 men on board the vehicle and the crossing guard did not.

Misleading.

Headline should read ‘Self-driving bus stops for pedestrian at crossing; operator overrides system and causes accident’

Exactly. If the bus was truly driverless, the accident would not have happened. This is not a failure of tech. Its human error that caused this.

The Mainichi daily said the bus automatically stopped but the operators pressed the start button as they did not think he would walk out on to the road.

Wow ... just wow. An able-bodied athlete walking in the Paralympian village and the operators assumed he had full sight. It seems that the bus was 'smarter' than its operators.

So he was at a crossing to cross the road, the bus automatically stopped but the human operator pressed go and the bus hit the person. Sounds like someone needs to go to jail.

Very misleading headline. As if they want people to think it was machine error when it was not. As for people being on board of a driverless vehicle it makes sense to me at this stage as they can give witness to any incidents. As they did. In the UK the VIctoria Line (1960's) has always been automatic but had a button pusher in the front. So a bus is much harder concept.

I am not sure of the rules of the road in Japan and I have thrown away my Japanese highway code to check. Do you legally have to stop at a crossing or does it depend on the type of crossing. I see everyday people getting stopped by police near me because they failed to stop at a stop sign including taxi drivers who truly should know better. I drive expecting people to throw themselves in front of me because no one ever looks behind before cutting me up. Very defensive driving is a must in Japan.

As for this incident I can't help thinking that the visually impared person was waiting to hear the bus stop before attempting to cross. He hears the bus stop, gets ready to cross and then the person presses a button to start the bus up again. If I was a journalist I would be asking what training these bus conductors had regarding the needs of the disabled considering it is the paralympics. The fact they said he did not have a cane shows a very level of understanding.

Out of interest I would also want to know what colour the auto-start, emergency-stop buttons are. If the bus has both, if they are located close or far apart. If the auto-start button has a think/delay process because even a message next to the button saying 'are you sure' might have made the difference.

 Japanese judo athlete 

Let's be fair here. During the Olympics the men and women who participated in Judo, were referred to as "judoka" .

Give him the same respect for the martial art he practices!

The fact that AFP published this with the fake headline says everything

Actually jt does THEIR own headlines, though I am sure they often just repeat the headline the original publisher uses

As for these ""operators"" clearly they need to be removed, if they have any sort of driver licenses those clearly need to considered for loss due to dangerous driving

Seems here technology was working just fine and human error is what caused the accident, ie bus driver. Hope the athlete recovers quickly.

I did a bit of searching and am still none the wiser. It states you must yeild to pedestrians which is fine if they are stepping out to cross. It is not clear how you can tell if a person is going to cross or not. I could not find anything that explains the day to day process of seeing someone on a pavement and deciding to stop or not.

There are plenty of articles stating 80% to 90% of Japanese drivers fail to obey the rules and none of them actually clearly state what rules the drivers are failing to do. Even this article does not give a link or a bit of public information about the ruels.

In the UK is simple. A pedestrian has to have a least one foot on the road. If they stand on the pavement then they are not legally crossing. So you drive slowly with care and only stop once the person attempts to cross. Does anyone have a link to a clear and easy rule about this.

The problem is that the pedestrians don't observe that rule either. I will often stop, but the pedestrian is not paying any attention at all, just waiting for cars to clear. Meanwhile traffic piles up behind me while the pedestrian stares into space or at their friend.

I have been there as a driver. As I waited to turn left on a main road with no signals, I waited and waited for an old man standing on the sidewalk to start going across the crosswalk. He was just standing there though no cars were coming so I figured he was just waiting for someone. I waited about 10 seconds then slowly turned left. Of course as I turned he decided to start crossing and walked into the side of my car. I got out of the car to see if he was ok, he went back to the position he was standing and bowed his head that he was fine. I had to leave though because this was a single lane road and cars were honking. Since then, if I come across the same situation, I gesture to the pedestrian to make sure of what they are doing.

It is a crossing you need to stop and wait for people to cross. unlike many other countries Japanese drivers do not stop at pedestrian crossings I have been hit twice at a crossing.

If you need "operators" for your driverless bus....What's the point?

Let's see how much Toyota is going to pay out to make this go away.

Its not really a self driving bus because it was being operated by a human and i find it very annoying and a bit infuriating that a disabled athlete was injured .

Clearly the safety of the participating disabled athletes is not a priority .

And yet somehow iam not surprised this happened .

Rant over!

Fake headline aside, I’m sure these operators feel horrible. It’s not like they were smokin reefer or chugging beers.

Clearly the safety of the participating disabled athletes is not a priority .

Clearly an over the top exaggeration.

Accidents happen.

it is not clear whether it was caused by human errors or the automous car?

Inside the Olympic Village suggests maybe not public roads, and there was a traffic control guard standing at the crossing too. Responsibility spread too thinly among people and systems? The situation is not quite so simple.

The boss of Toyota was on the news yesterday apologizing for not having considered such a scenario in advance.

Sounds like user error and not an issue with the bus technology.

BroncoToday  06:47 am JST

Just as fallible as humans, but not as friendly.

Read the article. It says there were two human operators onboard. 

The bus stopped as designed, but one of the human operators pushed the button to keep going.

This was human error, not technological.

This is why we have to read the articles -- not just the headlines.

then what’s the point of AI automations if they needed an operator. This means they were still testing and had no confidence in letting in operate on its own. Sound like crime and bad judgment

After driving mini buses around Japan's crowded ski resorts for many season I am fully aware of pedestrians reactions. When driving up to drop off the punters at the Gondola at Happo one this lane was always crowded with skiers and boarders walking in the same direction often leaving no room to pass. At first I would just tap there

Toyota corporate-speak, an odd version of Newspeak (novel 1984): One of its electric buses, "made contact with a pedestrian who is visually impaired," Toyota said in a statement.

It is not a 'self-driving' vehicle. It is automated and had two 'operators' aka drivers on board.

Why is a judoka, an athlete, referred to as a Paralympian. That's rhetorical, not a question. Are athletes participating in judo during the Olympics referred to as Olympians, instead of athletes?

"Thank you for riding Johnny Cab."

Thats a reference to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie "Total Recall" where they were using self driving taxis called Johnny Cabs. Even in the movie, these things malfunctioned.

You can't make this stuff up folks

Get rid of AI… human will never be able to perfect them. Puppet, ansible to Microsoft bought out chef… name hoes on. The coders are only as smart as the robot programmed by. So the blame goes to the company and developers that were on this project. No getting away with hit and run or murdered by AI

As self-driving vehicles increase, we have to get used to this thing. Also the insurance industry will have to figure how to blame robots.

An accident waiting to happen.

The Mainichi daily said the bus automatically stopped but the operators pressed the start button as they did not think he would walk out on to the road.

So in this case it looks like human error not AI error, so the article seems a bit misleading.

@Ian

unlike many other countries Japanese drivers do not stop at pedestrian crossings

I have seen one stop at a pedestrian crossing so you are lying

And you ran over to him/her and checked their nationality did you?

I hope the poor athlete is OK. A tiny village with numerous vision impaired people is probably not the best place to "showcase" this tech, Toyota. Epic fail.

Impossible not to laugh. . . I'm sorry. . .

Don't be a grub.

adding that the athlete was not holding a cane and there was a traffic-control guard at the crossing.

That person holding no cane, so bus operator can not tell whether he is visually impaired or not, also there is traffic control guard that don't do nothing while he was crossing.

the bus automatically stopped but the operators pressed the start button as they did not think he would walk out on to the road.

Even an operator will hard to tell whether that person will cross or not.

Did a visually impaired athlete NOT have a helper or

someone to watch their back?

unlike many other countries Japanese drivers do not stop at pedestrian crossings

I have seen one stop at a pedestrian crossing so you are lying

Traffic law says the driver should stop at a pedestrian crossing and allow the pedestrian to cross, not guess whether he will decide to walk.

The problem is that the pedestrians don't observe that rule either. I will often stop, but the pedestrian is not paying any attention at all, just waiting for cars to clear. Meanwhile traffic piles up behind me while the pedestrian stares into space or at their friend.

As is often the case in Japan, the law says one thing but actual practice is another. (For more, look at the irrelevant and ridiculously low speed limits on highways.)

the horn and they would turn around look at the bus and then move to the side. So I was for ever stopping and starting. I soon leant that if I just nudge the walkers with the bus they would automatically jump to the side without turning around and looking at the bus and then move to the side. This avoid me from stopping and starting and never did I had a incident by nudging, and abuse was less.