At CES 2020, Toyota announced an interesting new concept. Toyota Woven City is a “test course for mobility” and part of the company’s efforts to evolve into a mobility company. The city is being developed in collaboration with Woven by Toyota, a subsidiary formerly known as the Toyota Research Institute for Advanced Development, focused on software-driven technology, like automated driving and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).
The company broke ground on a test site about a year later, and last October, the company wrapped up construction of phase one, which Toyota announced this week at CES 2025. Later this year, the ribbon will come off Toyota’s Woven City, and test subjects will start moving in.
Starting this fall, some 360 people, mostly Toyota personnel and relatives, will occupy 50,000 square meters of experimental city — the company hopes to eventually grow the population to 2,000 spread out among 708,000 square meters.
The city was built in Shizuoka, Japan, on the former site of subsidiary Toyota Motor East Japan Higashi-Fuji’s (TMEJ’s) plant. TMEJ was founded in July 2012 when Central Motors, Kanto Auto Works and Toyota Motors Tohoku merged to make compact cars. The plant went offline at the end of 2020 as demand for small vehicles waned.
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Woven City boasts an environmentally-conscious, “human-centric design” to enhance the overall quality of life and the old TMEJ plant is being renovated into a manufacturing hub. Toyota says the city will be home to “inventors” that will share a commitment to working “for someone other than themselves” and develop, test, and validate new products and services.
The inventors include Toyota employees, external startups, and individual entrepreneurs. The idea is that these collaborators can leverage Toyota’s manufacturing expertise and Woven’s software capabilities to invent tools and services that can “tackle societal challenges” and “shape a better tomorrow.”
Some of the third-party inventors set to move into Woven City include Daikin Industries, an HVAC manufacturer that will test “pollen-free spaces” and “personalized functional environments;” DyDo Drinco, a beverage company working on innovative vending machine concepts; Nissin Food Products, an instant noodles maker that will create and evaluate new food environments; UCC Japan, a coffee maker developing futuristic cafe experiences; and Zoshinkai Holdings, an education services provider looking to construct new educational methods and learning environments.
Toyota says residents and visitors will play a vital role alongside the city’s inventors. The company calls them “weavers” and describes them as individuals who share a commitment to building a more flourishing society. At first, weavers will be limited to inventor relatives, with plans to welcome the general public sometime next year.
It’s possible that Woven City could enter the rocket manufacturing business as well. At CES 2025, Woven by Toyota announced an investment in Interstellar Technologies, a private Japanese company looking to get into the commercial space business. The deal is valued around $44.3 million and Interstellar hopes to leverage Toyota for mass rocket production.
External startups, entrepreneurs, universities and research institutions will be invited to Woven City through an accelerator program starting in the summer of 2025.
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