GOOD DESIGN AWARD

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Special Award
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Award-winning item: ELECTRIC TOWING TRACTOR [TOYOTA 3TE25 AUTONOMOUS]
Business Owner: TOYOTA INDUSTRIES CORPORATION
Category: Commercial vehicle, Commercial vehicle-related instruments
Company: Toyota Industries Corporation (Japan)
Award Number: 21G100937
Outline of Good Design Award winners: Outline of Good Design Award winners 2021

Outline* The shown information is the one as of the awarded date and might has been changed.

Outline: This tractor is used to tow container dollies loaded with passengers baggage and cargo in airports. The tractor is equipped with an autonomous driving function equivalent to Level 3 and aims to improve labor-intensive airport operations. It is a high-performance electric vehicle with performance comparable to that of engine vehicles, and will contribute to the realization of a low-carbon society.
Producer: Osamu Shibuya, TOYOTA Material Handling Company, R&D Center, Automation & Robotics project, L3 Engineering Office, L31 Group,
Director: Tadayuki Yakushi,TOYOTA Material Handling Company, R&D Center, Global Product Planning Dept., Technology Planning Office, Design Group,
Designer: Hiroki Mori, TOYOTA Material Handling Company, R&D Center, Global Product Planning Dept., Technology Planning Office, Design Group,
Already in service/use: 2021/10

Evaluation

A job of transporting trollies using a towing tractor is highly labor-intensive, and therefore the labor scarcity in this area is deepening. In such a situation, this product suggests a solution for this issue by automating the operation of tractors. While practice of automatic driving on public roads keeps being delayed due to legal restrictions and technical issues, its use in airports was commenced in a rather early stage, and is providing an unignorable level of solutions for social issues. There is a technical breakthrough using a road surface pattern matching in a complementary manner under the situation where there are no buildings (e.g., runway) and self-location estimation by SLAM technique is difficult. Also, this product contributes to the low-carbon society by electrification of vehicles.