The Future City – Toyota’s Woven City is Ready for its First Residents

Toyota’s futuristic Woven City, built on the site of an old car factory in Japan, is almost ready to welcome its first residents.

At CES 2025, the Japanese auto giant provided updates on the progress of its $10 billion project, dubbed a “living laboratory” where people can live and test future projects. Toyota stated that it has completed “phase 1” of construction, with an official launch planned for 2025.

“Woven City is not just a place to live, work, and play,” said Toyota President Akio Toyoda at a press conference on January 7 at CES 2025. “It’s a place where people can create and develop all sorts of new products and ideas. It’s a vibrant living laboratory, where residents are voluntary participants, giving inventors the freedom to freely test their ideas in a real-world, safe environment.”

Toyota first unveiled Woven City at CES 2021. At that time, the company stated that it would be a “prototype city of the future” where autonomous vehicles, innovative street design, smart home technology, robots, artificial intelligence (AI), and new mobility solutions could be tested.

Toyota will welcome the first 100 residents to Woven City this fall, all of whom will be employees of Toyota or its subsidiary, Woven by Toyota. The community will gradually expand to include “outside inventors and their families” who will be invited to move to the new city. In the first phase, the city will accommodate 360 residents, according to Toyota.

Toyota refers to these first residents as “Weavers,” adding that they are people who “share a passion for the ‘expansion of mobility’ and are committed to building a more prosperous society. Through co-creation activities, Weavers will contribute to realizing the full potential of Woven City.”

That said, the first “inventors” confirmed for Woven City are mostly in the food service business, including a vending machine company and a startup that wants to explore “the potential value of coffee through a futuristic cafe experience.”

Toyoda mentioned a few other ideas during his press conference, including high-powered wheelchairs for people with disabilities. He also floated the idea of a personal drone that follows joggers for added safety and “pet robots” for the elderly.

The Woven City site, located at the foot of Mount Fuji, features buildings designed by renowned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. The goal, through phase 2 and subsequent phases, is to build enough housing and amenities for up to 2,000 people to live there year-round, with facilities powered by the company’s hydrogen fuel cell technology.

The name “Woven City” alludes to the interweaving of three types of street lanes or pathways, each designated for a specific type of user. Accordingly, the city will have one lane for fast-moving vehicles, a second lane combining slower-moving personal mobility vehicles like bicycles and scooters, as well as pedestrians. And the third type will be a park-like walkway exclusively for pedestrians.

With its spirit of innovation and aspiration for expansion, Woven City aims to redefine how we live, move, and grow, positioning itself as a blueprint for a more sustainable and mobile future.

TT (Tuoitrethudo)