Japan’s Toyota Builds a City-like Center to Test Robotics, AI

Japanese automaker Toyota says it is building a research center in a city-like setting to test robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous vehicle technologies.

Toyota recently announced it had completed the first part, or phase, of the center, called Woven City. It sits near the southern Japanese city of Susono. Company officials recently showed off the latest progress to reporters from the Associated Press.

Daisuke Toyoda is an executive for Toyota who is helping lead the project. He told the AP that the center was not designed to be a “smart city.” However, it aims to carry out technology research and development and be “a test course for mobility.”

The company said Woven City would serve as a “Living Laboratory.” It aims to test technology systems to support future changes in “the movement of people, goods, information and energy.”

Toyoda said the center is meant to be a place where researchers and technology company officials can come together and share ideas. It will also seek to establish a community with a shared desire “to co-create, develop and refine” new technology products and services.

Woven City was built on the grounds of a closed Toyota automobile factory. The automaker said the project’s first phase covers about 47,000 square meters. When completed, it will spread out over 294,000 square meters.

Building operations on Woven City began in 2021. All the buildings are connected by underground passageways. Among planned testing activities will include self-driving vehicles making waste pickups and completing deliveries around the area. Testing operations will center on how people living in cities can best interact with changing technologies.

Currently, no one lives in Woven City. When it opens, officials plan on having about 100 people living there. They will be called “weavers.” These are workers employed by Toyota and its partner companies making other products.

When AP reporters visited the area, Japanese coffee maker UCC was serving hot drinks from a self-driving bus. The bus was parked in an area surrounded by still-empty housing.

Toyota has supported electric vehicle (EV) technology in the past. However, the company is currently involved in a push for hydrogen, the energy of choice in Woven City.

Keisuke Konishi is an automobile expert at Japan’s Quick Corporate Valuation Research Center. He told the AP Toyota has plans to expand into self-driving vehicle services to compete with Google’s Waymo and other large companies.

Konishi noted the company has the money for such development even if it means building up a completely new business. “Toyota has the money to do all that,” he said.

Toyota officials have said they do not expect Woven City to make money, at least not for the first few years.

Several other futuristic developments have been planned in other areas of the world over the years. They have included efforts in Toronto, Canada; Saudi Arabia; Abu Dhabi; and San Francisco, California. But those projects are either still being developed or have been canceled.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English.

autonomous –adj. able to operate without the help of people

mobility – n. the ability to move or walk around freely

refine – v. to make something pure or improve something, especially by removing unwanted material

deliver – v. to move goods from one place to another

park – v. put a vehicle in a place where it can stay for a period

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