VIDEO: Toyota begins construction of smart city to be served by autonomous vehicles

Japanese automotive OEM Toyota announced this week that it has begun construction of its 700,000m2 (7.5m sq ft) Woven City – a smart city project at the foot of Mount Fuji. Some of the ‘weaving’ implied in its name comes from the meshing together of three types of thoroughfare – one dedicated to autonomous vehicles (AVs), one to pedestrians and one to micromobility. At the heart of the city concept, which was first announced at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, is the Toyota ePallete, an AV concept recently profiled in TTi magazine, which uses a basic vehicle chassis that is repurposable for multiple uses, from office space to mobile shops.