Akio Toyoda Pays a Visit to the e-Palette Support Team During the Inaugural Event
Toyota President Akio Toyoda Visits e-Palette Operation Team During Tokyo 2020 Games
On the day of the Tokyo 2020 Games' opening ceremony, Akio Toyoda, the President of Toyota, visited the e-Palette operation team. The team, made up of mainly Toyota employees, works tirelessly around the clock to ensure the autonomous vehicles are running smoothly.
Toyoda, who had often felt helpless in the past when trying to implement kaizen, found a sense of camaraderie with the e-Palette team members. He considers them as his family, just like the athletes. His visit was not just a show of support, but also a chance to check on their well-being.
Before addressing everyone, Toyoda shared a few words with each person in the room. His words seemed to make the entire team more relaxed. He advised them to expect trouble and look forward to dealing with it, rather than avoiding mistakes at all costs.
The e-Palettes are currently in use at the Olympic Village, with 16 units facilitating the movement of athletes within the village. Although each e-Palette has an onboard safety operator, the vehicles are essentially autonomous. Toyota emphasised that nothing dangerous had ever happened and that an emergency stop or minor delays were acceptable, as long as accidents were avoided.
During his visit, Toyota also checked the real-time status of the e-Palettes and asked if there had been any trouble that caused a switch from autonomous to manual operation. The search results do not provide specific names of the persons involved in the supervision of the e-Palette vehicles during the Olympic Games.
After his visit to the e-Palette operation, Toyoda was in the studio of the Toyota Times Athletes Now program to cheer on Toyota athletes. His visit to the e-Palette operation team and his words of encouragement have undoubtedly boosted the team's morale and instilled a sense of resilience and adaptability in them. The e-Palette operation supports safe event management for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 by providing mobility support to athletes.
