Toyota Technical Review

Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 was the first Games in history to be postponed for a year and was held mostly without spectators. After everything that has happened, I wonder how many people know the reasons given by Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota, in 2015 for deciding to become a worldwide partner.

We became a worldwide partner because we shared the concept and values of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, namely to challenge our limits and realize a more inclusive society. Our aim was to help build a society through sports in which everyone can participate in peace and equality, and to help realize a sustainable society through mobility.

In particular, we believe that mobility goes beyond cars. Mobility is about overcoming challenges and making dreams come true, something that might be possible if we can realize mobility for everyone in society.

Therefore, rather than being a sponsor responsible simply for providing vehicles, as has been the case in previous games, we actively took on the challenge of providing a comprehensive mobility solution for the Games as the first ever worldwide mobility partner.

This comprehensive mobility solution was built from three pillars that express the essence of our sustainable development goals (SDGs): sustainability, mobility for all, and the Toyota Production System (TPS). We developed and deployed a whole range of advanced technologies at the Tokyo 2020 Games based on these pillars.

For sustainability, we provided a whole fleet of hydrogen-powered mobility for the Games, including operational vehicles such as buses and forklifts, in addition to passenger vehicles. As well as helping to realize the most environmentally friendly Games in history, these actions and the use of hydrogen for the Olympic and Paralympic flames also helped to show the way toward the carbonneutral hydrogen energy based society of the future and demonstrated how we can leave a beautiful planet for the next generations.

Tokyo is the first city in the world to host the summer Paralympic Games twice. We supported the running of the Games by providing technologies with the potential to become the ultimate solutions for realizing the concept of mobility for all. We also enabled virtual mobility for people in far-away places via the T-TR1 and T-TR2 telepresence robots to help bring the Torch Relays closer to as many people as possible. These technologies embody the potential for what mobility for all could mean in the future.

In addition, through a TPS- and IoT-driven Olympic and Paralympic Games transport management system, we helped to realize safe, secure, and comfortable mobility in Tokyo, which is one of the major challenges for transportation in densely populated cities.

We also helped to reduce the number of officials needed for throwing events through the development of a field support robot (FSR), enhanced the spirit of welcome of the Games through the development of mascot robots, and provided excitement through the superhuman performance of the CUE basketball robot. Our efforts brought happiness to athletes, the people who watched the Games, and every other stakeholder. Behind all these accomplishments are powerful stories about the remarkable development progress that was achieved after the Games were postponed.

Simultaneously, as we face the challenge of living with the coronavirus and with new emphasis being placed on the value of space and mobility, growing attention is being focused on mobility technologies that have a particular significance for current times, such as the LQ, which is the ultimate example of a personally owned vehicle (POV), and non-contact robot technologies such as human support robots (HSRs).

Through these projects, Toyota's development teams at the Olympic and Paralympic Games have taken on challenges in a wide range of new fields. I believe that this was the perfect opportunity to accelerate advanced technical development while working seriously toward our SDGs as we transform into a mobility company.

This is because the Olympic and Paralympic Games form a varied and vibrant real-world community made up of athletes and background staff from around the world, as well as volunteers and other supporters. Realizing technology for this community is an excellent opportunity to communicate our vision for the mobility society of the future to as many people as possible.

Finally, it will be important for our development teams to continue their tireless work to provide ever-better solutions that fit the characteristics of each host city and demonstrate their progress as we move from Tokyo to Beijing, and then to Paris.

With the Olympic and Paralympic Games being held every two years, I believe that this cycle can provide a spark for Toyota's rebirth as a mobility company and act as a catalyst for us to transform our home planet.