Toyota begins building smart city near Mt Fuji

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Toyota Motor Corp on Tuesday began construction of a smart city at the foot of Mt Fuji in central Japan as a testing ground for new technologies including robotics and artificial intelligence.

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About 360 people including Toyota employees will initially move to the so-called Woven City to be built at the 70.8-hectare former Toyota factory site in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, powered by electricity from fuel cells, which derive power from a hydrogen-oxygen reaction, in addition to solar panels.

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Toyota describes the city — run with partner companies such as telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp — as a “living laboratory” where it will test autonomous vehicles, robots and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment.

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The Japanese automaker has commissioned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, who designed the 2 World Trade Center in New York City and Google’s headquarters in California, to plan the layout of the city.

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Toyota said the streets in Woven City will be designated for three type of usage — faster vehicles only, personal mobility and pedestrians and a pedestrians only promenade.

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The buildings will mostly be made of wood to minimize the carbon footprint, and the homes will use sensor-based AI to check the occupants’ health, it said.

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