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Toyota has teamed up with Bjarke Ingels Group to imagine Woven City, a 175-acre city of the future to be built at the base of Mount Fuji. Revealed at CES 2020 in Las Vegas on Monday, the "living laboratory" will be home to resident researchers who will develop and test technologies in a real-world environment centred around autonomy, robotics, personality mobility, and smart homes.
The "fully connected ecosystem" will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells, with buildings manufactured from wood crowned by photovoltaic panels to generate solar power. The masterplan of the site splits street usages into three types, designating areas for faster vehicles only, pedestrians only, or a mix of both. Main thoroughfares will only allow autonomous zero-emission vehicles under the scheme.
"Building a complete city from the ground up, even on a small scale like this, is a unique opportunity to develop future technologies, including a digital operating system for the city's infrastructure," said Akio Toyoda, president, Toyota Motor Corporation. "With people, buildings and vehicles all connected and communicating with each other through data and sensors, we will be able to test connected AI technology...in both the virtual and the physical realms... maximizing its potential."
Residences will feature human-support technologies, including in-home robotics assisting with daily living. Homes will use sensor-based AI to monitor residents' health and take care of basic needs.
"A swarm of different technologies are beginning to radically change how we inhabit and navigate our cities," said Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG. "Connected, autonomous, emission-free and shared mobility solutions are bound to unleash a world of opportunities for new forms of urban life. With the breadth of technologies and industries that we have been able to access and collaborate with from the Toyota ecosystem of companies, we believe we have a unique opportunity to explore new forms of urbanity with the Woven City that could pave new paths for other cities to explore."
Toyota plans to break ground on the project in early 2021, with an initial 2,000 people set to populate the area. Toyota will also extend an open invitation to collaborate with corporate and academic partners as the site develops.
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