Olympic games mini cars

Miniature remote-controlled cars have proved to be a crowd pleaser at track and field throwing events, but for the Tokyo Olympics Toyota Motor Corp is upping the game with a high-tech way to fetch javelins and hammers: pint-sized, self-driving artificial intelligence AI robot cars. Draped around the top of its body is a band of LED lights which illuminate when the vehicle uses artificial intelligence to follow event officials toward the equipment hurled by athletes onto the pitch during shot put, discus throw, hammer throw and javelin events.

After the equipment, which can weigh as much as 8kg for hammers, is loaded into the vehicle by the official, a press of a button located toward its front sends the car zipping back to athletes for later use. The trend of using miniature cars to fetch equipment at Olympics throwing events goes back to the Beijing Games, where firey-red, rocket-shaped cars scurried along the green to collect hammers, javelins and discuses.

At the Games in London, BMW operated a fleet of blue and orange miniature Mini Coopers to collect the discarded equipment, while pint-sized green pick-up trucks performed the task at the Rio games in A major sponsor of the Tokyo Games, Toyota also plans to dispatch virtual-reality enabled humanoid robots and mobile telepresence robots, which will enable spectators who cannot attend the games in person to experience events and meet athletes remotely.

A fleet of robots on wheels that can perform household tasks for elderly people and hospital patients are to guide guests to wheelchair seats and serve refreshments at events. Toyota plans to use the games to showcase its new vehicle technologies ranging from fuel-cell buses to on-demand, self-driving taxis. Biggs insisted that the rules are being adhered to as the Minis collect javelins, hammers and discuses and return them to competitors.

Conceived as a thrifty vehicle during the s fuel crisis, the car came to symbolize the "Swinging 60s" Britain. BMW's canny use of Minis highlights the challenge sponsors face at the Olympics to secure a return on their investment when exposure is heavily restricted by the IOC.

The use of the Minis could open the door at future Olympics for sponsors to search for ways to get around IOC advertising restrictions. Shopify rolled out new algorithms in mid-December that resulted in several updates. In addition to minor changes to image requirements, it also included significant modifications to how the platform recommends apps that help fill out Shopify's robust ecosystem.

Many developers pay for advertising to drive traffic to their apps in Shopify's App Store. ET in response to a couple of negative news items. Biggest news first: Tesla's electric Cybertruck, which was first unveiled in with a promise of production by , obviously missed that deadline.

Tesla subsequently suggested Cybertrucks might be available for purchase by , but now, even that's in doubt. The Oracle of Omaha knows how to beat inflation. So ride his coattails. The Nasdaq Composite got thrown back on Thursday, and is down 1. What's got investors upset with Nvidia? No sooner had Rivian recovered on Wednesday from the sell-off it suffered when its chief operating officer was reported to have left the company Monday than Rivian promptly sold off again -- Thursday morning.

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We can't help but cringe at the notion of 'product integration' efforts most of the time, particularly when it comes to movies and sports. That's because as often as not, the placement efforts seem contrived. And while the notion of using a Mini Cooper to retrieve thrown javelins, hammers, shot and discuses at the London Olympics might not seem like the world's most natural pairing, we can't ignore the inherent cheek and charm in using radio-controlled cars for an otherwise unremarkable chore.

That's enough carrying capacity to lug around a hammer, a discus, a shot or a pair of javelins. The cars' large scale also helps them pack the larger battery arrays that Mini says are necessary to run them for 35 minutes before being down for 80 minutes of charge time.

The models are painted blue with orange Olympic livery and white roofs, and they even have working headlights. While we're a little surprised Mini didn't choose to go with a Clubman or the load-lugging Countryman like we did in our recent giveaway , we think the marketing stunt fits in well with the brand's fun and funky spirit, and we're hoping that Mini publishes some video footage of their little helpers in action soon.

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