Toyota's Woven City: A Living Lab for Mobility Tech in Shizuoka

Toyota's Woven City, a purpose-built community in Shizuoka prefecture near Mount Fuji, serves as a real-world test course for mobility, autonomy, robotics, and AI. The project stems from Toyota's 2018 announcement of its transition from a car maker to a mobility company. Unveiled at CES Las Vegas in 2020, the complex occupies the site of the former Higashi-Fuji plant, which produced the first Toyota Century. Phase one began in autumn 2023, with 50 of about 300 households occupied. Residents, called Weavers, include Toyota employees, partner companies, and startups, collaborating through a process termed kakezan (multiplication). Current features include the e-Palette autonomous micro bus and the Guide Mobi, a medium-sized autonomous transport robot. The name Woven City references Toyota's origins in textile manufacturing, with Sakichi Toyoda's automatic loom invented in 1924. The company maintains working looms at the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. Toyota aims to catalyze innovation across People, Goods, Information, and Energy as the population grows.