Toyota’s ‘Woven City’ is coming together

Toyota Chairman 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 invent and adopt new technologies. The first phase of construction has been completed and the first companies to participate in the project have been named. If you’re wondering, the “woven” thing is because before it made cars, Toyota made weaving looms.

In 2018 Toyota chose CES to announce its intention to transform into a “mobility company”, which was something many car companies were saying at the time. The idea was that companies like Toyota should diversify away from making 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 contributor to this change.

According to a Wall Street Journal report from 2023 the path from the announcement to the operating incubator was not without difficulties, but today’s announcement really reflects another Toyota corporate trait, the desire to stick with big projects. With the completion of the first phase, the company renovated a former factory into a production center and began work on phase 2 of the Woven City project.

Toyota calls the non-Toyota companies that will work 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 “a food environment to inspire new ‘food cultures'”
• UCC Japan Co (coffee), which plans to work on futuristic coffee shops
• Zoshinkai Holdings (Education), which will develop new educational methods and learning environments.

In the early fall of 2025. 100 residents, known as ‘weavers’, will move into the city, with that number expected to grow to 360 during the first phase. Ultimately, Toyota says up to 2,000 people will live in the city. They will mostly 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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