Sept. 15, 2021—The president of Toyota is preaching caution as development of autonomous vehicles continues to rapidly progress.

Akio Toyoda expressed concerns about the rapid development of AV systems after one of his company's e-Palette vehicles struck an athlete during the 2020 Paralympic Games, according to a report from Carscoops. The low-speed collision didn't cause an injury, but Toyoda did say it showed the significant gap AVs have to cross before entering the mainstream.

“I don’t think it’s at all realistic yet that self-driving cars can travel normally on ordinary roads,” he said. “There is this pressure on carmakers to be the first to release Level 5 vehicles, but I have been saying that we should not jump onto such a bandwagon."