Toyota has opened the doors to the first phase of Woven City, its experimental town meant to act as an incubator for technologies from autonomous driving to artificial intelligence. Woven City aims to serve as a test bed for the innovative technology the world's No. 1 automaker needs to regain its competitive edge in an industry dominated by battery-powered cars with sophisticated software. Still, it was unclear during a Thursday tour for media and stakeholders how the city might fit that requirement. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories.

Toyota unveiled to the media on Saturday the first phase area of its Woven City, a demonstration city being built in central Japan to test advanced mobility technologies. The demonstration city in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, includes roads dedicated to automated mobility on the ground and "logistics streets," or underpasses to conduct experiments on the automation of logistics services. "From this place, I hope that future mobility will emerge," Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said at a ceremony to mark the completion of the first phase building of Woven City. The first phase area covers 47,000 square meters. Eight of the 14 buildings completed last year are residential buildings, surrounded by an exchange center for inventors and residents, an energy building and others.

Woven City is a bold experiment by Toyota. There is a futuristic city designed and built from the ground up in Japan to test the latest technologies. It's called Woven City, and it's a bold experiment by Toyota to transition from being just an automaker to a broader mobility company focused on the future of movement. Far from a traditional testing ground, this is a fully functional urban environment designed for real people to live, work and play while contributing to groundbreaking research. Think of Woven City as a real-world laboratory.

The world's first'city of the future' is nearly ready to welcome its first residents. Developed by car maker Toyota, 'Woven City' sits at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan and features at least 11 'smart' homes powered by hydrogen, AI and other technologies. CEO Akio Toyoda said the 10 billion utopia would serve as a'lab' for innovators to develop the technologies of tomorrow. The city is poised to welcome its first 100 residents, which will be employees, this fall, who will live there for free -- though they'll need to already be Toyota employees and work on developing experimental tech for the company. The program will then expand to 2,200 more people, who will include innovators and their families, parents and pets.

Toyota Motor plans to move in the first 100 residents of a futuristic city at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan by as soon as this fall. The initial residents of Woven City will be composed mostly of the carmaker's own employees and their families, and will gradually expand to about 2,000 residents as part of its initial phases, Toyota said Monday. "This year, residents will begin moving in as we slowly bring Woven City to life," Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said at a news conference at CES in Las Vegas. "We aim to accelerate the pace at which new technologies can be tested and developed at Woven City." Toyoda debuted plans for the "living laboratory" five years ago as Toyota's then-president, saying then it would be a fully sustainable city and real-world showcase for artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, self-driving cars and smart homes.

The endless possibilities and concerns about future technologies are staggering. Some suggest that through AI's enhanced productivity we will get to a point that humans will be free from working monotonous jobs. In return, we may find ourselves receiving stipends from the work that our robot counterparts are performing. Others fear that our robotic workforce will work their way up the corporate ladder and push us out to pasture long before were ready to leave. No one really knows what the future holds, but one country has an interesting perspective on artificial intelligence and how it will be harnessed to serve its citizens.

With its ambitious project to build Woven City -- a fully-connected, human-centered city at the base of Mount Fuji -- Toyota Motor Corp. aims to become a world leader in smart city technology. The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a rethink of how people move and live, and has reinforced the need to create technology that supports "happy, healthy" human life, says Toyota Chief Digital Officer James Kuffner. "Woven City is not meant to be a technology bubble where the technology stays only within Woven City. It's really meant to be a place where we incubate it, test it, accelerate it and then export it all over the world," Kuffner said in a recent interview. For countries like Japan, addressing the challenges posed by the graying of society -- such as mobility and healthy living -- is an urgent task.

Toyota Motor Corporation started construction this week on a 175-acre smart city at the base of Japan's Mount Fuji, about 62 miles from Tokyo, the company announced Tuesday. The city, which Toyota has dubbed the "Woven City," is expected to function as a testing ground for technologies like robotics, smart homes, and artificial intelligence. A starting population of about 360 inventors, senior citizens, and families with young children will test and develop these technologies. These residents, who are expected to move into the Woven City within five years, will live in smart homes with in-home robotics systems to assist with daily living and sensor-based artificial intelligence to monitor health and take care of other basic needs, according to the company. The eventual plan is for the city to house a population of more than 2,000 Toyota employees and their families, retired couples, retailers, and scientists.

NAGOYA – Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday began construction of a smart city at the foot of Mount Fuji in central Japan as a testing ground for new technologies including robotics and artificial intelligence. About 360 people including Toyota employees will initially move to the so-called Woven City to be built at the 70.8-hectare former Toyota factory site in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture. It will be powered by electricity from fuel cells, which derive power from a hydrogen-oxygen reaction, in addition to solar panels. Toyota describes the city -- run with partner companies such as telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. -- as a "living laboratory" where it will test autonomous vehicles, robots and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment. The automaker has commissioned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, who designed the 2 World Trade Center in New York City and Google's headquarters in California, to plan the layout of the city.

Like the city that hosts the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) there is a lot of noise on the show floor. Sifting through the lights, sounds and people can be an arduous task even for the most experienced CES attendees. Hidden past the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) is a walkway to a tech oasis housed in the Westgate Hotel. This new area hosting SmartCity/IoT innovations is reminiscent of the old Eureka Park complete with folding tables and ballroom carpeting. The fact that such enterprises require their own area separate from the main halls of the LVCC and the startup pavilions of the Sands Hotel is an indication of how urbanization is being redefined by artificial intelligence.