At the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda promised to build the city of the future, a place where researchers, engineers and scientists can live and work together. It was set up as the start of a transformation for the world’s largest car company, turning it into a full-fledged mobility company.
Six months ago, the first residents moved in after Toyota spent nearly $10 billion to build an urban paradise on top of a disused factory. Hundreds of handpicked “Weavers” residents, chosen to increase the technological reliability of the sensor-laden mini-metropolis, have begun to settle.
I had a chance to check it out last week. Here’s what I learned while walking the streets of Toyota’s vision for the future.
The future is secure
As part of its transformation into a true mobility company, Toyota aims to become the world’s safest car manufacturer. The company says it wants to create a “zero-accident society” — a tall order considering the number of Toyota vehicles currently on the road.
Wowen City on a sunny day.
Credit: Toyota
Wowen City on a sunny day.
Credit: Toyota
“Statistically, the suite of autonomous vehicles out there is nowhere near the size of the vehicles that Toyota has in the world,” said John Absmeier, CTO of Woven City. While companies such as Waymo will launch tens of thousands of vehicles, Toyota’s latest autonomous fleet will need to perform to a higher standard, he said.
To get there, Absmeier said, Toyota vehicles, even with the most advanced lidar, radar and imaging sensors on the planet, need more awareness than their on-board systems can provide. For example, the only way to spot a child climbing out of the back of a truck is with cameras monitoring hazards on every street and combined with oncoming traffic warning systems.
This is part of the old promises communication to everything from the carand at Woven City, Toyota is trying to make that idea a reality.
The future is a privacy nightmare
But if the idea of ubiquitous cameras watching everyone gives you pause, you’re not alone—it certainly seemed mind-boggling to me. I counted eight separate cameras at one intersection in Woven City, plus many more mounted on the ceilings of the buildings I walked through. There were even half a dozen hanging over the little teahouse.
