Toyota’s “Woven City” is coming

Toyota President Akio Toyoda appeared at CES today to announce the progress of the company’s Woven City project which, true to its name, is an actual city where Toyota and other companies hope to invent and validate and new technologies. The first phase of construction is complete, and the first companies participating in the project have been called. If you’re wondering, the “woven” thing is because, before they made cars, Toyota made fabric frames.

In 2018, Toyota chose CES to announce its intention to transform into a “mobility company”, which was something a lot of car companies were saying at the time. The idea was that companies like Toyota should diversify away from just building cars and 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 factor contributing to that change.

According to a The Wall Street Journal report from 2023, the journey from the announcement to the operating incubator has not been without difficulties, but today’s announcement reflects another of Toyota’s corporate characteristics, the desire to keep with big projects. As the first phase, the company renovated an old plant into a manufacturing center and began work on Phase 2 of the Woven City project.

Toyota calls the non-Toyota companies operating in Woven City “Inventors.” So far, the list of “Inventors” is:

• Daikin Industries (air conditioning), which will test “pollen-free spaces” and “personalized 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 (café), which plans to work on futuristic coffee experiences
• Zoshinkai Holdings (education), which develops new educational methods and learning environments.

Beginning in the fall of 2025, 100 residents known as “weavers” will move into the city, with that number expected to expand to 360 during the first phase. Eventually, Toyota says, up to 2,000 people will reside in the city. They will mainly 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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