As of February 23, Toyota is working on a huge $10 billion project in Japan called Woven City. This city, built near Mount Fuji, is designed to test out new technologies like robots, self-driving cars, and vehicles that don’t use gas. The first part of the city is already finished and will be a place where Toyota and other companies can come together to try out these new ideas.
Woven City isn’t for regular people just yet. Only 100 workers, called “weavers,” will live there at first to help test out the city’s new systems. These workers are from Toyota and other partner companies like Nissin, Daikin, and UCC. The city has special underground roads where self-driving cars will move around to do tasks like collecting trash and making deliveries.
The goal of Woven City isn’t to make money right away. Instead, Toyota wants to use the city as a place to develop and test new technologies, like self-driving vehicles and robotics, that could change the way people live and travel in the future. While Toyota has been slower to jump into electric cars, they are focusing on hydrogen-powered vehicles in the city. Toyota hopes that Woven City will help them compete with companies like Google’s Waymo in the race for new, futuristic transportation solutions.