Toyota Woven City (“Woven City”), jointly developed by Toyota Motor Corporation (“Toyota”) and Woven by Toyota, Inc. (“WbyT”), today marked the first anniversary of its official launch. Since starting operations as a test course for mobility, proof-of-concept trials (“POCs”) have steadily expanded.
Woven City is a living laboratory designed to create new value through Kakezan — the multiplication of diverse strengths and expertise across industries. As of September 2026, approximately 30 POCs centered on residents have been underway.
About 160 people across roughly 80 households are participating as Weavers, the residents who take part in POCs. The group includes residents of Susono City, where Woven City is located, as well as surrounding municipalities.
Inventors conduct POCs, gather feedback from Weavers and refine their products and services through cycles of Kaizen — a process of continuous improvement. This cycle is now actively supporting the development of new products and services.
The Woven City Integrated ANZEN System (“Integrated ANZEN System”) is one example. Developed by WbyT, the system is now being tested in Woven City. Under the recent partnership agreement signed between WbyT and Shizuoka Prefecture, WbyT will expand testing beyond Woven City within fiscal year 2026 by installing devices in Shizuoka Prefecture government vehicles and collecting data.
The AI Robot Association (“AIRoA”) is also advancing POCs with Woven City residents. Household robots provide daily living support such as tidying up and carrying items. As of September 24, AIRoA has introduced the robots in 11 households, with more than 1,000 tasks tested to date.
UCC Japan, which operates UESHIMA COFFEE LOUNGE at Woven City, has developed a method to visualize over 300 behavioral data points from POC participants in graphs. As a next step, the company will leverage this visualization method to examine how different types of coffee affect concentration levels.
WbyT plans to release Woven City AI Vision Engine 2.0, a major update to the current version, by the end of 2026. The AI Vision Engine is currently used in the Integrated ANZEN System and UCC Japan’s POC at Woven City. AI Vision Engine 2.0 will expand its ability to describe real-world events in natural language, while adding capabilities to reason why events occurred and detect specific behaviors by people and mobility technologies in visual data. The current AI Vision Engine has recorded a world-leading score on one vision language model benchmark, while AI Vision Engine 2.0 has recorded world-leading scores on more than 10 benchmarks*¹, including those measuring reasoning.
Note*¹: Evaluated using an internal testing environment built by WbyT, following the standards and methodologies provided by benchmarks such as MVBench, CaST-Bench, and GroundingME.
Seven New Inventors Join Woven City, Bringing the Total to 31
Woven City’s community of Inventors, the driving force behind Kakezan, continues to expand. This includes four companies that won the Toyota Woven City Challenge – Hack the Mobility – accelerator program: Aerial Base, Aillis, Inc., JOYCLE, Inc., and NationX, Inc*².
Chubu Electric Power Miraiz Co., Inc., Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. have also joined as Inventors, bringing the total to 31.
?Toyota Woven City Challenge Winners
Inventor | Core Business | Theme |
|---|---|---|
Aerial Base | Testing drone-based aerial photography, inspection, surveying, measurement and logistics, as well as deployment and operational support. | Trialing new logistics experiences using drones and dedicated delivery boxes. |
Aillis, Inc. | Developing and implementing AI-powered medical devices, medical technologies and AI models. | Delivering “2030 healthcare” nationwide as the Woven model: Testing the AI-driven future of medicine. |
JOYCLE, Inc. | Providing resource-circulation services centered on the JOYCLE BOX, which converts waste into resources without requiring transportation or incineration. | Exploring optimal urban infrastructure solutions for converting waste into resources on-site without requiring transportation or incineration. |
NationX, Inc.*² | Researching and developing a dedicated platform supporting AI-based decision-making. | Building a decision-making platform that uses AI to integrate resident, facility and other data to identify optimal decisions for the entire city. |
Note*²: Changed from original finalist PUBLIC Technologies.
?New Inventors
Inventor | Core Business | Theme |
|---|---|---|
Chubu Electric Power Miraiz Co., Inc. | Selling electricity and gas and providing related services. | Creating accessible demand response services to realize a society that uses electricity wisely. |
Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. | Developing and manufacturing of the OEM supply of mini vehicles and compact cars for the Toyota Group. | Testing a mobility and energy services co-creation platform enabled by microgrids that are powered by automotive technology. |
Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. | Manufacturing, selling and servicing construction and mining machinery, and provision of related solutions. | Exploring and validating future construction site concepts for real-world implementation. |
Phase 2 Construction Underway with General Visitor Reception Opens
Construction on Woven City’s Phase 2 began in September. Site preparation work has been completed and the area is now scheduled to be completed by the end of November 2028, with a planned 600 resident capacity. Phase 2 aims to accelerate POCs and build on Phase 1, where POCs started last year. It marks a further expansion of Woven City’s total site area, which ultimately is planned to accommodate approximately 2,000 people.
Starting October 1, Woven City will open visitor reservations to the general public in Japan. The program began in September with visits from residents of Shizuoka Prefecture and is now expanding nationwide.
Woven City was recruiting residents from Shizuoka Prefecture in August and received more than 1,000 applications. Approximately 25 households are expected to move into Woven City around March 2027 through this program.
One year after its official launch, a growing number of co-creators who share WbyT’s belief in driving change “For Others” are joining Woven City to take on the future of mobility together. WbyT will continue accelerating POCs with Inventors and Weavers, aiming to make Woven City inventions a natural part of everyday life and enhance well-being for all.
?Woven City Phase 1 and Phase 2 Information
Phase 1 | Phase 2 | |
|---|---|---|
Address | 1117 Mishuku, Susono City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan | (same as left) |
Area | Approximately 47,000? | Approximately 52,000? |
Number of residents*³ | Approximately 300 people | Approximately 600 people |
Key milestones | ?March 2021: Start of site preparation work ?November 2022: Start of construction ?October 2024: Completion of construction ?September 25, 2025: Official launch | ?May 2023: Start of site preparation work ?September 2026: Start of construction ?November 2028: construction to be completed |
Note*³: The entire area is expected to eventually accommodate approximately 2,000 residents.