The world’s first ‘city of the future’ is nearly ready to welcome its first residents.
Developed by car maker Toyota, ‘Woven City’ sits at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan and features at least 11 ‘smart’ homes powered by hydrogen, AI and other technologies.
CEO Akio Toyoda said the $10 billion utopia would serve as a ‘lab’ for innovators to develop the technologies of tomorrow.
The city is poised to welcome its first 100 residents, which will be employees, this fall, who will live there for free — though they’ll need to already be Toyota employees and work on developing experimental tech for the company.
The program will then expand to 2,200 more people, who will include innovators and their families, parents and pets.
Revealing the development at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Toyota unveiled some of the technologies that will be worked on in the city.
Those will included ‘drones that safely escort you home at night,’ interactive pet robots to assist the elderly and robots to assist with everyday tasks.
‘Autonomous driving will be among the many technologies we intend to develop at Woven City,’ Toyoda said at CES.
The above image, released by Toyota, shows the completed area of Woven City
A flying self-driving robotaxi developed by Joby (pictured) will be used to ferry people around the futuristic city
‘Among other things, we hope to use AI to help expand the reach of Woven City…allowing people to virtually interact with the city and its projects.’
In the pipeline is a flying self-driving robotaxi made with Joby that has completed more than 300 fully automated flights.
The company is also working on a racing car that can drift autonomously.
He said they were also planning to move residents’ families, pets and relations into the city.
‘Woven City is more than just a place to live, work, and play,’ Toyoda stated at CES.
‘It’s a living laboratory where the residents are willing participants, giving inventors the opportunity to freely test their ideas in a secure, real-life setting.’
‘Woven City is a place where people can invent and develop all kinds of new products and ideas.’
The city is now set to enter Phase 2 of construction, which will add further buildings to prepare it to welcome new residents.
‘Woven City’ sits at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan
The city is poised to welcome its first 100 residents in this fall before expanding to 2,200 people, who will include innovators and their families, parents and pets. The streets will be filled with self-driving taxis
Pictured is what the smart-homes will look like in this futuristic city
The city’s name, Woven City, is in reference to Toyota’s start as a loom manufacturing company, and is being built on a former Toyota factory outside Susono City, home to 50,000 people.
And the first residents will be called ‘Weavers.’
The CEO told the assembled audience: ‘Do I expect Woven City will make any money? Perhaps not.’
But he added it could also be an incubator for the technologies of the future that could end up in every home.
Revealing the progress in a press release, Toyota said: ‘Woven City is a test course for mobility where ‘inventors’… can develop, test, and validate innovative products and services.
‘By leveraging Toyota’s decades-long manufacturing expertise… Woven City offers a unique environment equipped with the tools and services needed to tackle societal challenges and create future-focused value.’
Toyota first revealed it was planning to build the city at CES in 2021, as the company shifts from a carmaker to a ‘mobility’ business.
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