Over the years, Toyota has come to CES to make various announcements about how it plans to transform from a classic automaker to a modern mobility company that supports an entire ecosystem. In 2018, Toyota introduced the e-Palette concept, a flexible electric platform that can be used for various use cases, adding automated shuttles and delivery vehicles. In 2020, we heard about Woven City, a long-term concept network that leveraged generation for a variety of uses, adding mobility. At CES 2025, Toyota is taking stock of Woven City again.
Since the initial announcement of Wired City, Toyota has created an entire business unit called Woven Planet and now known as Woven Through Toyota (WthroughT), which incorporates many of its next-generation mobility efforts. This includes the 2021 acquisition of Carmera, Lyft’s level five automated driving unit and its collaborative mapping platform, an investment in WeaveGrid for vehicle-to-grid integration, and a partnership with May Mobility to test its driving formula automated in e-Palette prototypes. . Training
Woven City is among the most ambitious projects, creating an entirely new network that also serves as a business and generation incubator. Located on the former site of Toyota Motor East Japan’s (“TMEJ”) Higashi-Fuji plant in Susono City, southeast of Mount Fuji, the first phase of the woven city structure was completed in October 2024. In late This year, approximately one hundred Toyota and WbyT workers and their families will begin moving in with the first five spouses. companies. Over time, around 360 more people will live in phase 1 and around 2,000 total in later phases. Residents and visitors are called “weavers. “
The whole concept “weaving” revolves around weaving something new into an ecosystem. It is also an allusion to Toyota’s origins as the inventor of the world’s first automatic looms before construction automobiles.
Woven City will serve as both a test course for new mobility concepts that include smaller, individual vehicles, robotics and other technologies as well as a business incubator. Among the future residents will be senior citizens to help try out ideas to make their lives better. Robots that can be companions and helpers will be among the projects. Automated vehicles such as the e-Palette for moving people and goods will also be evaluated as will e-VTOLs made by Joby. At the CES press conference, chairman Akio Toyoda even brought up the idea of building rockets.
This summer, Toyota will launch a reveal festival so more concepts can explore the knitted city. The first organization of corporations or “inventors” in Wired City includes:
Companies participating in first wave of Toyota Woven City project
Clearly, Woven City is about more than just mobility services and testing new types of vehicles. There is a diverse array of participants with the goal of creating a new type of community for the 21st century. As populations age, especially in Japan, many of these ideas may become essential to enabling people to continue to live independent lives. Toyota plans to make its manufacturing expertise available to its inventor partners as well as the software skills that it has been spawning within WbyT.
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