Top secret ‘living lab’ robot city of the future built near volcano will welcome first human residents later this year
PEOPLE will move into a top secret robotic utopia “living laboratory” later this year filled with futuristic tech.
Toyota has been building its Woven City since 2021 which will serve as a test ground for driverless cars, smart homes and robotics.
The site is just a few miles away from Mount Fuji, Japan and costs $10billion / £8billion.
Phase 1 construction of the ambitious project is now complete and one hundred people will move in later this year, Toyota announced at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.
The current site will eventually house 360 residents.
Once phase 2 and future phases are complete up to 2,000 people could be living there.
“Woven City is more than just a place to live, work, and play,” said Akio Toyoda, Chairman of Toyota.
“Woven City is a place where people can invent and develop all kinds of new products and ideas.
“It’s a living laboratory where the residents are willing participants, giving inventors the opportunity to freely test their ideas in a secure, real-life setting.”
Select inventors and their families – known as “Weavers” – will relocate to Woven City in autumn with the goal of developing technologies to address “societal challenges”.
Toyota is inviting experts from third parties too, including a firm working on pollen-free spaces for those who suffer with hay fever and another building futuristic vending machine concepts.
Meanwhile, an instant noodles company will also look to create food environments to inspire new “food cultures”.
Visitors to the top secret city will be “limited to related parties” at first.
But the general public will be able to visit and participate in activities from 2026.
Toyota has previously explained that each residence will be kitted out with solar-panel rooftops, AI tech to monitor health inside the home and all vehicles and buildings will be connected through data and sensors.
Houses, made mostly from wood, will include in-home robotics to “assist with daily living” helping residents to be more independent.
Streets will be split into three types, pedestrian-only areas, roads for fast-moving traffic and streets for a mix of lower-speed vehicles.
The car brand commissioned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels – whose previous projects include the Two World Trade Centres, the Lego House in Denmark and Google‘s Mountain View – to work on the huge development.