Toyota’s ambitious “Woven City” project is moving from concept to reality, with the Japanese automaker announcing that its $10 billion smart city at the base of Mount Fuji has completed its first phase of construction. The 175-acre experimental urban environment, first unveiled in 2021, is scheduled for an official launch in 2025 and will welcome its first 100 residents in fall 2025.
The living laboratory represents Toyota’s bold attempt to reinvent itself as a comprehensive “mobility” company rather than just an automaker, coming at a critical time when the world’s largest car manufacturer faces mounting pressure from Chinese EV competitors and reports sluggish electric vehicle sales. Toyota’s November earnings revealed a significant drop in quarterly profits and declining sales in China, making the success of innovative projects like Woven City increasingly important for the company’s future competitiveness against rivals like Tesla and BYD.
Woven City will serve as a real-world testing ground for cutting-edge technologies including autonomous vehicles, robotaxis, flying cars, and advanced robotics. The city’s infrastructure features AI-powered smart homes and a unique three-tiered road system designed to accommodate different types of transportation: self-driving vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Designed by renowned architect Bjarke Ingels—whose portfolio includes 2 World Trade Center and Google’s California and London headquarters—the city heavily integrates robotics throughout its design.
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda revealed at CES that Woven City could feature “pet robots” for elderly residents and personal safety drones that would escort joggers. The initial residents, dubbed “weavers,” will primarily consist of Toyota employees and their families, with the city eventually expected to house 2,000 people. The first wave of companies testing products in Woven City includes air-conditioning manufacturers, an instant noodle maker, and a coffee company promising “futuristic café experiences”—a somewhat more modest start than the flying cars and advanced robotics that dominate the project’s vision.
This experimental urban environment represents one of the most ambitious attempts by a major corporation to create a controlled testing environment for emerging technologies, positioning Toyota at the intersection of automotive innovation, artificial intelligence, and smart city development.
Key Quotes
pet robots for older people and personal drones that would escort joggers to ensure their safety
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda described potential AI-powered features at CES, highlighting how the city will integrate robotics and AI into daily life for safety and companionship purposes, particularly for vulnerable populations.
living laboratory
Toyota’s description of Woven City emphasizes its purpose as an experimental testing ground rather than a traditional residential development, positioning it as a real-world research facility for advanced AI and mobility technologies.
Our Take
Woven City exemplifies the convergence of AI, robotics, and urban planning that will define the next decade of technological development. What’s particularly noteworthy is Toyota’s willingness to invest $10 billion in a controlled experiment at precisely the moment its core business faces serious challenges. This suggests the company views AI-integrated mobility solutions as existential to its survival, not merely incremental improvements. The inclusion of “pet robots” and safety drones reveals how AI is moving beyond productivity tools into emotional and social domains. However, the gap between the futuristic vision and the initial corporate partners—air conditioning and instant noodles—highlights the challenge of translating ambitious AI concepts into practical applications. This project will provide crucial data on whether humans actually want to live in AI-saturated environments, making it as much a social experiment as a technological one.
Why This Matters
Woven City represents a critical inflection point in how major corporations approach technology development and urban planning. As traditional automakers face existential threats from electric vehicle manufacturers and tech companies entering the mobility space, Toyota’s $10 billion bet on an AI-powered experimental city signals a fundamental shift in competitive strategy. The project matters because it creates a real-world sandbox for AI integration at scale—from autonomous vehicles to smart home systems to robotic assistants—providing invaluable data that could shape urban development globally.
The timing is particularly significant as Toyota struggles with EV adoption while Chinese competitors rapidly gain market share. Woven City could validate Toyota’s hybrid approach to future mobility, potentially offering a blueprint for how AI, robotics, and human-centered design can coexist in urban environments. For the broader AI industry, this represents one of the largest controlled experiments in deploying multiple AI systems simultaneously in a living environment, with implications for smart city development, autonomous vehicle deployment, and human-AI interaction research worldwide.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/toyota-building-smart-city-at-the-base-of-mount-fuji-2025-1