[00:00.00]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.
[00:19.93]Toyota recently announced it had completed the first part, or phase, of the center, called Woven City.
[00:31.34]It sits near the southern Japanese city of Susono.
[00:37.08]Company officials recently showed off the latest progress to reporters from the Associated Press.
[00:47.07]Daisuke Toyoda is an executive for Toyota who is helping lead the project.
[00:55.56]He told the AP that the center was not designed to be a "smart city."
[01:04.03]However, it aims to carry out technology research and development and be "a test course for mobility."
[01:15.17]The company said Woven City would serve as a "Living Laboratory."
[01:22.99]It aims to test technology systems to support future changes in "the movement of people, goods, information and energy."
[01:37.38]Toyoda said the center is meant to be a place where researchers and technology company officials can come together and share ideas.
[01:51.85]It will also seek to establish a community with a shared desire "to co-create, develop and refine" new technology products and services.
[02:07.13]Woven City was built on the grounds of a closed Toyota automobile factory.
[02:15.14]The automaker said the project's first phase covers about 47,000 square meters.
[02:25.95]When completed, it will spread out over 294,000 square meters.
[02:35.06]Building operations on Woven City began in 2021.
[02:41.38]All the buildings are connected by underground passageways.
[02:47.13]Among planned testing activities will include self-driving vehicles making waste pickups and completing deliveries around the area.
[02:59.55]Testing operations will center on how people living in cities can best interact with changing technologies.
[03:11.39]Currently, no one lives in Woven City.
[03:15.66]When it opens, officials plan on having about 100 people living there.
[03:22.12]They will be called "weavers."
[03:25.99]These are workers employed by Toyota and its partner companies making other products.
[03:34.13]When AP reporters visited the area, Japanese coffee maker UCC was serving hot drinks from a self-driving bus.
[03:46.34]The bus was parked in an area surrounded by still-empty housing.
[03:52.99]Toyota has supported electric vehicle (EV) technology in the past.
[03:59.90]However, the company is currently involved in a push for hydrogen, the energy of choice in Woven City.
[04:10.91]Keisuke Konishi is an automobile expert at Japan's Quick Corporate Valuation Research Center.
[04:21.90]He told the AP Toyota has plans to expand into self-driving vehicle services to compete with Google's Waymo and other large companies.
[04:36.61]Konishi noted the company has the money for such development even if it means building up a completely new business.
[04:48.33]"Toyota has the money to do all that," he said.
[04:53.55]Toyota officials have said they do not expect Woven City to make money, at least not for the first few years.
[05:05.25]Several other futuristic developments have been planned in other areas of the world over the years.
[05:14.64]They have included efforts in Toronto, Canada; Saudi Arabia; Abu Dhabi; and San Francisco, California.
[05:25.33]But those projects are either still being developed or have been canceled.
[05:32.37]I'm Bryan Lynn.
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Words in This Story
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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