Toyota announces plans of a prototype city as a lab for autonomous cars, smart homes, and AI

Toyota Motor Corp announced its plans to build a prototype futuristic city named “Woven City” on Tuesday, at the International CES 2020 in Las Vegas. The city will be named after Toyota’s humble beginnings as a loom manufacturer, and is planned to be built at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan.

Toyota’s Woven City Will Spread Over 175-Acres

Akio Toyoda, the President of Toyota Motor Corp, announced the decision in Las Vegas on Monday at the annual technology industry show and said that many people might not see the purpose of such an expensive and lengthy project. “You may be thinking, ‘Has this guy lost his mind?’” Toyoda quipped, amidst laughter, to the CES audience. “‘Is he like a Japanese version of Willy Wonka?’ Perhaps.”

The 175-acre site for the Woven City aims to be the pioneer of creating cleaner, safer, and more tech-incorporated cities of the future. It will use hydrogen fuel cells and function as a laboratory for autonomous cars, smart homes, and artificial intelligence. The city will include schools, ambulances, police departments, and will house mainly Toyota employees, retirees, and researchers.

Toyota Refrained From Revealing The Costs Associated With The Project

With the revelation of such a vast project, Toyota showcases the extent of financial resources it is ready to expend in its home country. The site for the construction of the city is an old car factory that is scheduled to be shut down by the end of 2020. And once the city is fully functional, it will be able to house more than 2,000 residents.

The costs for the project have not been revealed yet but Toyota insiders claimed that the budget has been extensively worked out. The 175-acre (71 hectares) project is a big step up from rival proposals of a similar nature. “It’s hard to learn something about a smart city if you are only building a smart block,” said James Kuffner, chief executive officer for the Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development. Many automakers have already talked about designing cities which use technology for everyday tasks and use clean energy to produce less climate-changing emissions.

Toyota said that other companies are welcome to test out their technologies in the community project which Akio Toyoda also called his personal ‘field of dreams’. Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels, has been commissioned to design the community. He has already worked on high-profile projects such as the two World Trade Center buildings in New York and Google’s offices in Silicon Valley and London.