Even the tie is the same as it was five years ago. In the room where Akio Toyoda once presented the plans for “his” model city, he can now announce: “Woven City” is standing. With this massive infrastructure project, the car manufacturer Toyota aims to explore the future of mobility. At CES 2025, Toyoda, the CEO of the company, has now announced the completion of Phase 1, the construction of the city.
In this connected small city, Toyota wants to test new technologies under real conditions. “Woven City” is being built at the foot of Mount Fuji on a one square kilometer area that used to be a Toyota factory. After the now completed first construction phase, “Woven City” covers only 50,000 square meters but is expected to expand to more than 700,000 square meters.
The fully connected infrastructure will mostly draw its energy from hydrogen fuel cells. As a “living laboratory,” people will eventually live and work in the city as usual. Future-oriented technologies such as autonomous mobility, robotics, smart homes, smart cities, and artificial intelligence will be explored. After the construction phase is completed, the first 100 people, mainly current or former Toyota employees, are expected to move into the city during the year. Later, according to Toyota’s plans, the population will grow to 2000.
Toyoda renewed his invitation to other companies and researchers to participate in “Woven City.” “This is the only way we can come up with ideas we would never have thought of on our own to improve life on our planet,” Toyoda said. Among the early partners is the Japanese telecommunications company NTT, which shares a common goal with Toyota: to pool the knowledge gained from “Woven City” and create an open platform for smart cities. This platform will use AI to evaluate the city’s data and enable urban planning through simulation with the feature “digital twin.”
In the connected city, Toyota not only wants to refine urban mobility but also mobility beyond Earth. Toyoda casually mentioned that Toyota has invested in Interstellar Technologies Inc. and wants to contribute its expertise in mass-producing rockets.
Heise Medien is an official media partner of CES 2025.