Five years ago, Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda took to CES to share with the world his “personal field of dreams”—a plan to build a prototype city on a 175-acre site at the foot of Mt. Fuji in Japan, where people would live. and work on all Toyota projects, including autonomous vehicle technology, robotics, connected smart home technology and AI.
Toyoda will return to the annual tech show in Las Vegas this year to finally unveil his “living lab” called Woven City. Toyota’s press conference, in which Chairman Toyoda will have a leading role, will be held at 1pm PT/4pm ET on January 6th during CES media day. The presentation will be streamed live on the company’s website.
In a video teasing the upcoming storefront, Toyoda dons a hard hat and safety vest as he walks into a modern high-rise building. He arrives on an upper floor and then removes the protective window covering, revealing Mount Fuji in the background and exclaiming “Welcome to Woven City!”
Details are scarce on what exactly will be revealed. TechCrunch, which was at the initial announcement in 2020, will be watching to see how startups will be involved in the Woven City and whether Toyota followed through on its plans to build a fully connected ecosystem powered by fuel cells with hydrogen.
