After a five-year-old Toyota, AKIO Toyoda, the CES 2025 exhibition, where he reported the joyful news: the company completed the first stage construction of Woven City. This ambitious project, which is planned to be implemented on the site of the former Toyota Higashi-Fuji plant in Japan, is a fully automated city of the future.
The idea is rooted in 2011 when the destructive earthquake and the followed by the tsunami inflicted serious damage to the company in the northeast of the country. Nine years later, management made a non -standard decision: instead of restoring the production, to create a technological settlement at this place capable of taking up to 2000 residents.
The project was called Woven City (“Woven City”) – in honor of the first invention of the founder of the company Sakiti Toyoda. Long before Toyota became a car giant, Sakiti developed an automatic weaving machine, trying to alleviate the work of his mother. This was the first step towards the creation of an industrial empire, which his son later brought to the world level.
At the presentation, Toyoda paid special attention to developments in the field of robotics. Engineers have created a unique robot training system: special cameras write down how people perform various tasks, and then the machines repeat these movements exactly. As an example, a video was demonstrated where robotic manipulators masterfully fold a T-shirt according to traditional Japanese technique, performing a complex three-stage algorithm. They plan to actively introduce similar technologies to help older residents.
The creators of Woven City also completely rethought the approach to urban mobility. Only environmentally friendly transport will drive through the streets, which either do not pollute the air at all or release a minimum of harmful substances. The company’s increased attention has already borne fruit: Woven City was the first Japanese project to receive a platinum certificate LEED – an international reward for the environmental friendliness of urban development.
The townspeople will have access to the whole arsenal of innovative transport: from personal electric vehicles to autonomous drones that can accompany a person in the dark. Particular attention was paid to the care of older people: they will be helped by robots-dogs that combine the functions of personal assistants and companions. In the sky above the city, they plan to launch regular flights of electric craft from Joby.
For freight transportation, Toyota has developed the E-PALETTE concept – an electrical drone with an open software interface. Thus, partners of the company will have the opportunity