Build it and they Will Come

Moving beyond vehicles, Toyota plans to manufacture a whole city.

There's hardly a region on Earth that Toyota doesn't reach. At the 2020 CES conference, the company announced a visionary project of similar scope, saying it intends to build a “prototype town of the future” to prove out new technologies of all kind, not just transportation-related. Toyota's Woven City is envisioned as “home to full-time residents and researchers who will be able to test and develop technologies such as autonomy, robotics, personal mobility, smart homes and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment.”

Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda appeared genuinely energized in announcing Woven City, saying “having the opportunity to build an entire city from the ground up - even on a very small scale like this - is in many respects the opportunity of a lifetime.” He said the 175-acre site of a decommissioned Toyota manufacturing plant will be the foundation for Woven City, with groundbreaking beginning in 2021.