Toyota built a $10 billion private utopia—what’s going on in there?
Summary
Toyota has built a new city called Woven City, costing about $10 billion, as a test site for future technologies. The city includes many sensors and cameras to improve safety, especially for autonomous vehicles, but it also raises concerns about privacy due to the extensive surveillance.Key Facts
- Toyota started Woven City to create a living lab for researchers, engineers, and scientists to develop future mobility technologies.
- The city is built on the site of an old factory and recently welcomed its first 100 residents, called "Weavers."
- Woven City aims to support Toyota’s goal of zero traffic accidents by using connected sensors and cameras throughout the city.
- Cameras are placed densely, with some intersections having eight or more, all feeding data into an AI system called the Woven City AI Vision Engine.
- The AI system tracks people by clothing but does not use facial recognition, aiming to monitor activity and improve safety.
- Privacy concerns exist due to this high level of surveillance, and Toyota is working to protect data with a system called "Data Fabric."
- Surveys show varying privacy attitudes globally, with Japanese people being particularly cautious and wanting clear data protection and use policies.
- Toyota plans to use Woven City as a model for integrating advanced safety technology in future vehicles and urban environments.
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