First Phase of Toyota’s Next-Gen City Unveiled; Robots to Make Deliveries to Residents via Tunnel

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:14 JST, February 22, 2025

Toyota Motor Corp. introduced the 50,000-square-meter first phase area of Woven City, a demonstration city for advanced technology being constructed in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, in a tour for members of the press on Saturday.

The company showed a research facility called Kakezan Invention Hub, plus other buildings and a courtyard where researchers and residents will gather.

In the first phase area, about 10 residential buildings and research facilities are constructed around the courtyard.

The Kakezan Invention Hub is a two-story glass-walled building, where researchers will let residents experience planned new services, and hear their impressions.

A 100-meter underground passageway that connects all the buildings in the first phase area will be used for robots to deliver mail and packages to the residents.

About 10 utility poles stand in the courtyard, which is landscaped with trees. The utility poles are equipped with power outlets and network cables to allow researchers to test their various advanced services.

Woven City is a demonstration city where self-driving vehicles, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies will be experimented with to enrich people’s lives. The company began constructing the city in on the site of a former factory in 2021.

The first phase of the 708,000-square-meter futuristic city will open in this autumn. Daikin Industries, Ltd., Nissin Food Products Co., DyDo Drinco, Inc., UCC Japan Co., and Zoshinkai Holdings Inc. have announced that they will join the project to conduct demonstration experiments.

The city is planned to have about 2,000 residents in the future.

Daisuke Toyoda, who is in charge of Woven City, said, “We will promote initiatives to contribute to realizing a safe and secure mobility society.”