According to data for 2019, there are 38 closed cities on the territory of Russia, inside which weapons are produced and all kinds of military facilities are located. Residents of these cities live quite normal lives, but they are obliged to sign documents on non-disclosure of information about the developments carried out in closed areas. Such cities exist in the United States, and some of them are designed to test completely safe technologies such as public transport with automatic control. In 2016, Sidewalk labs was engaged in the construction of such a city, and in 2021 the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota will be engaged in the development of the same project. But why does a company need a separate city and who will live in it?
The plans of the Japanese car manufacturer were reported by The Verge. At the moment it is known that the city will be called Woven City, which can be translated as “Woven City”. This name was given due to the fact that it will consist of three interlaced streets. The first one will be designed for the movement of cars with a self-driving system, the second one will be used by “smart” bicycles and scooters, and the third one - simple pedestrians. The company plans to use the city to test automatic driving systems and all sorts of elements of "houses of the future" that can monitor the health of residents and help them with their everyday life using robots.
This is how the streets of Woven City will look like.
Where is Toyota city located?
The city of Woven City will be located on the territory of the former Toyota automobile plant, the area of which is 70 hectares. This area at the foot of Mount Fuji, considered a symbol of Japan, should be suitable for the construction of a city with a capacity of up to 2,000 people. The construction will be led by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, who is the author of the unusual eight-shaped building in Copenhagen.
House "take-off", built by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.
Of course, in addition to the three roads, residential buildings, hospitals and schools will be built in the city. Toyota employees and their families will settle in them, who will be able to use them simultaneously to test various components of "smart" homes and automatic public transport that can independently deliver passengers to the desired part of the city. This has not been officially announced, but on the streets of Woven City you can surely find police robots and other unusual equipment.
Promotional video:
Night view of Woven City.
The company's plans are undoubtedly extremely interesting. At the moment, automatic driving systems in cars require careful tuning and a small city with real people is the best platform for developing such a technology. Of course, all this can be done on public roads, but most often large trucks are tested on them. Urban conditions with living people are necessary to test the performance of cars.
Ramis Ganiev
