Toyota plans to build a Prototype City of the Future
On January,6 2019 Toyota revealed its plan of building the City of the Future which is likely to happen in 2021 japan on Mt. Fuji. Toyota plans on building a city of the future called a prototype city of the future or the Woven city, estimated to be on a 175 acre site. The “Woven city” will consist of thousands of residents, testing the emerging technologies of autonomous vehicles, robotics, personal mobility, smart homes and artificial intelligence in a real world environment
This city is to be designed in conjunction with renowned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, whose firm is responsible for designing the upcoming 2 world trade center in New York, Google’s new headquarters and other modern or futuristic developments such as Mars simulation city for Dubai
According to president of the automaker, Akio Tayoda, he described this project as a “living laboratory”. He also continued to say, “Imagine a fully controlled site that will allow researchers, engineers and scientists to freely test technology.” While announcing the plans with conjunction with the CES technology in Las Vegas.
He further added that “this will be a truly unique opportunity to create an entire community or city from the ground up.” However the company did not announce the expected cost or time frame for which the project would be completed
The master plan for this city is expected to include three sectors for research of such technologies which include, fast vehicles with a mix of lower speed, personal mobility and pedestrians with a park- like promenade for pedestrians.
Toyota estimates about 2000 people to live in woven city that includes employees, retailers and visiting scientists as mentioned by Toyoda when he said,
“I suppose you could say this is my personal field of dreams, you know, if you build it, they will come,” residents will also be equipped with the latest in human support technologies such as home robots to assist in the daily life and the homes will be sensor- based to ensure proper health checkups to the occupants and also providing basic needs and enhancing their daily life.
The city is envisioned to be fully sustainable and environmentally friendly since most of the buildings will be made of wood( traditional Japanese wood) so as to minimize the carbon footprint with fully autonomous with zero –emission vehicles while using solar power and power generated by hydrogen fuel cells as the rooftops will be covered in photo –voltaic panels. It also plans to weave in the outdoors throughout the city with native vegetation and hydroponics as autonomous Toyota e-palettes will be used for transport and delivery purposes
Toyota believes that encouraging human connection will be an equally important aspect of this experience and that’s why both neighborhood parks and large central park for recreation as well as central plazas for social gathering are meant to bring the community together
According to the company, residents are expected to be equipped with the latest in human support technologies, such as in-home robotics to assist with daily living. In this regard, Tayoda commented and said, “I truly believe this is a project that can benefit everyone, not just Tayota.”
Read more Technology News on WeeklyReviewer!
