“Toyota Woven City” comes together

Toyota President Akio Toyoda appeared at CES today to announce progress on the company’s Woven City project which, true to its name, is an actual city where Toyota and other companies hope to create and validate new technologies. The first phase of construction has been completed, and the first companies that will participate in the project have been named. If you’re wondering, the “woven” thing is that before it made cars, Toyota made weaving looms.

In 2018, Toyota chose CES to announce its intention to transform into a car “Mobility Company” This is what many car companies were saying at the time. The idea was that companies like Toyota should diversify themselves away from simply manufacturing cars into other products and services that enable the movement of people and goods. When the Woven City project was announced in 2020, Toyota said it would be a major contributing factor to this transformation.

According to A Wall Street Journal report As of 2023, the journey from announcement to operating incubator has not been without difficulties, but today’s announcement reflects another Toyota trait: a willingness to commit to big projects. With the completion of the first phase, the company will renovate a former factory into a manufacturing center and begin work on the second phase of the Woven City project.

Toyota calls the non-Toyota companies that will operate in Woven City “inventors.” So far the list of “inventors” is:

• Daikin Industries (air conditioning), which will test “pollen-free spaces” and “customized functional environments”
• DyDo Drinco (soft drinks), which plans to work on new vending machine concepts.
• Nissin Food Products Co (instant noodles), which will create and evaluate “food environments to inspire new ‘food cultures’”
• UCC Japan Co. (coffee), which plans to work on future café experiences
• Zoshinkai Holdings (Education), which will develop new educational methods and learning environments.

Starting in the fall of 2025, 100 residents known as “weavers” will move into the city, and this number is expected to rise to 360 during the first phase. Eventually, Toyota says, up to 2,000 people will reside in the city. They will primarily be employees of Toyota or Toyota’s Woven by Toyota mobility technology company.

Toyota says additional companies, universities and startups will be invited to join the Woven City project in 2025.

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