Toyota Will Transform a 175-Acre Site In Japan Into a 'Prototype City of the Future' (theverge.com) 37
At CES on Monday, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said the Japanese auto giant will transform a 175-acre site of a former car factory into a "prototype city of the future" where it can test autonomous vehicles, innovative street design, smart home technology, robotics, and new mobility products on real people who would live there full-time. The Verge reports: The site, which is located at the base of Mount Fuji, will be designed by famed Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. It will house up to 2,000 people, including Toyota employees and their families, and it will be powered by the company's hydrogen fuel cell technology. [Toyoda said] that the company expects to break ground at the end of 2021.
Toyota is calling the site "Woven City," a reference to weaving together three different types of streets or pathways, each for a specific type of user. One street would be for faster vehicles only. The second would be a mix of lower-speed personal mobility vehicles, like bikes and scooters, as well as pedestrians. And the third would be a park-like promenade for pedestrians only. "These three street types weave together to form an organic grid pattern to help accelerate the testing of autonomy," the company says. "This is my personal 'Field of Dream,'" Toyoda added. "'If you build it, they will come.'" The plan is reminiscent of Sidewalk Labs' efforts to build a digital city on Toronto's Eastern waterfront. However, it's almost certainly going to face less pushback from the local government, as Toyota is a Japanese company and collects considerably less data than Sidewalk Labs' parent company Alphabet, which has been caught in a battle over information privacy.
UPDATE 1/6/20: The story has been updated with additional information.
Toyota is calling the site "Woven City," a reference to weaving together three different types of streets or pathways, each for a specific type of user. One street would be for faster vehicles only. The second would be a mix of lower-speed personal mobility vehicles, like bikes and scooters, as well as pedestrians. And the third would be a park-like promenade for pedestrians only. "These three street types weave together to form an organic grid pattern to help accelerate the testing of autonomy," the company says. "This is my personal 'Field of Dream,'" Toyoda added. "'If you build it, they will come.'" The plan is reminiscent of Sidewalk Labs' efforts to build a digital city on Toronto's Eastern waterfront. However, it's almost certainly going to face less pushback from the local government, as Toyota is a Japanese company and collects considerably less data than Sidewalk Labs' parent company Alphabet, which has been caught in a battle over information privacy.
UPDATE 1/6/20: The story has been updated with additional information.
autonomous vehicles need an test track with lot's (Score:2)
autonomous vehicles need an test track with lot's of different road setups to be an real test. also need snow.
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The looping Expressways of Japan with all of the tunnels and stacked levels with merges
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PCOTF? (Score:2)
I guess EPCOT was taken, so they went with PCOTF.
I hear it's going to stay in development for several years until it's ultimately pivoted into a theme park.
Obligatory Portal reference (Score:2)
"There is research to be done
on the people who are still alive."
Sidewalk Labs? (Score:5, Funny)
First thing I though of was EPCOT.
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Actually, Walt wanted EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) to be an actual planned community. As soon as Walt passed away, the company (i.e. Roy), who didn't share his bother's vision, turned it into a theme park, not a community. I remember seeing Walt talking about the plan for EPCOT on the "Wonderful World of Color" one Sunday night in the 60s while Disney World was being planned.
This is not exactly right and definitely misleading. Roy didn't have the kind of vision Walt did - nobody did. And the Walt Disney Company at the time of Walt's death did not have the money to build his vision of EPCOT. The video you reference was supposed to be used as a pitch to get investors to fund building it. We have no idea if it would have happened had Walt lived longer. Roy faced unreal pressures from company investors to do nothing and sell the Florida land and he fought very hard just to
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Didn't they eventually build Celebration, Fla as a Disney planned community - themed essentially as a Community of Yesterday, with fake small-town architecture and a walkable town center.
Too bad ... (Score:2)
Too bad that the 'City of the Future' won't have any fully-electric cars ...
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
This is what happens without SIM City (Score:2)
The Failure of SIM City leads CEOs to do things like this..
When they start to go into city planning (the height of god complexes outside of politics or medicine) they need to retire or get another job; at least introduce them to Cities Skyline to get their fix.
DESTROYED by GIANT SPIDERS (Score:2)
Those that declined the performance enhancing serum fled into the jungle before crocodiles got them. The natives burned down the church before the final battle with the hopped-up Pinkerton rejects.
Why not universal broadband (Score:1)
Why do most people even need cars if most of the world can be accessed virtually? Save those roads for repair and emergency services. Open up some bike lanes for when you choose to travel (remember, my premise is you don't strictly need to travel). With so few drivers needed, isn't it more economical to train a handful of humans to drive vehicles on streets that are primarily for maintenance access?
Re: Why not universal broadband (Score:1)
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I guess when you rely on corporations to build your Cities of Tomorrow, you get cities in the image of the corporations' agendas. Alphabet gave you the best futuristic surveillance technology can provide (for good and bad), and maybe Toyota will provide the best futuristic transportation a car maker can provide. Hint, it probably won't be mass transportation...
Here's a novel idea. How about Canada and Japan figuring out what kind of future they want rather than just turning land over to corporate 'vision
Translation: Hellish 'smart' nightmare. (Score:2)
This happens when you let the people who would have used AOL (or maybe still do) and Apple lead tech innovation. Insanely misguided, but only recognizable as such by those with a clue. While looking amazing to the clueless masses.
Likely designed for helicopter perspectives, not pedestrians, too.
Fail (Score:2)
They are spending all this money on useless things. They still lack the vision of even Tesla. Why does their interior look terrible. Teslaâ(TM)s interior makes you want to sit inside it and watch movies all day. Benz to this day canâ(TM)t fit a decent monitor in their interior. Look at the 2020 Mercedes S series. The interior looks terrible. The monitor looks glued on there as an afterthought and has a MASSIVE bezel. Anyway, back to Toyota. They lack vision, are clueless about what the future int
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TeslaÃ(TM)s interior makes you want to sit inside it and watch movies all day. ....
Actually the interior of a Tesla is an abomination. A car is for driving, not for watching movies
good thing it's in Japan (Score:2)
The description was okay until it came to the idea of a road or path strictly for pedestrians. That made me snicker thinking that if they had tried to build such a thing here they wouldn't be able to have a pedestrian only path. I live in Vancouver, Canada, and the cyclists here barrel down every surface they can reach, even your front yard unless it's protected by a very sturdy fence.
They say that Canadians have good manners but perhaps the Japanese will show us how a pedestrian path is really done and h
Where's the beef? (Score:2)
The link provided is to an article on the Verge, and it was a meaningless article. The "Woven City" concept seems to imply the way that streets and walkways intermingle, the idea as I infer it is that vehicles and pedestrians can be safely separated while maximizing the benefits to each mode, all within a limited space. Instead, the article just shows some pictures of architect concept drawings of ordinary non-descript houses and buildings. So what?
So, figuring that there must be more relevant info out t
Re: But, I don't want to live in a big city (Score:1)
High tech homeless shelters? (Score:1)
Stop the presses! (Score:2)
Pilot test common (Score:2)
hmm (Score:2)
The future sucks, Butthead. Change it. (Score:1)