Putting aside the concerns the article already notes (privacy nightmare is an understatement), I'm not sure if I like the solutions Woven City provides anyhow. Obviously this city is going to be...
Putting aside the concerns the article already notes (privacy nightmare is an understatement), I'm not sure if I like the solutions Woven City provides anyhow. Obviously this city is going to be designed to solve the problems Toyota is best suited to solve, but I think in the process it also creates a problem that Toyota then sells you the solution for: the cars.
For a 3-block experiment, there is no legitimate reason for there to be cars or buses at all, other than the fact that Toyota wants to sell you cars and your city government buses. The counter argument of this being a small experiment also showing off solutions if it scales to a larger area doesn't hold in my opinion, because then cars become a dogshit solution to the transporting people problem, an issue that is visible in every single city on the planet. The little autonomous buses that they use are still a compromise of the city to the road, and likely only really safe once you add in the surveilance hellscape this experiment proposes.
The real solution to mass transit are trams, or ideally: metros. This compacts city to something walkable, which is the true solution for local transit, and leaves wide roads to their actual purpose: supplying businesses and grocery stores.
I wasn’t sure where to put this, society, tech or life. It’s an interesting piece on a synthetic city Toyota has made which I had never heard about. Personally, I would hate to live there, but it...
I wasn’t sure where to put this, society, tech or life. It’s an interesting piece on a synthetic city Toyota has made which I had never heard about. Personally, I would hate to live there, but it is notable that they are doing it.
The city also has a website with some more photos (and of course you can just Google Street View it, although the photos are from March 2025 and a lot of it is just construction sites). If nothing...
The city also has a website with some more photos (and of course you can just Google Street View it, although the photos are from March 2025 and a lot of it is just construction sites).
If nothing else, it's in a really nice location not far from Hakone and the Izu peninsula.
Putting aside the concerns the article already notes (privacy nightmare is an understatement), I'm not sure if I like the solutions Woven City provides anyhow. Obviously this city is going to be designed to solve the problems Toyota is best suited to solve, but I think in the process it also creates a problem that Toyota then sells you the solution for: the cars.
For a 3-block experiment, there is no legitimate reason for there to be cars or buses at all, other than the fact that Toyota wants to sell you cars and your city government buses. The counter argument of this being a small experiment also showing off solutions if it scales to a larger area doesn't hold in my opinion, because then cars become a dogshit solution to the transporting people problem, an issue that is visible in every single city on the planet. The little autonomous buses that they use are still a compromise of the city to the road, and likely only really safe once you add in the surveilance hellscape this experiment proposes.
The real solution to mass transit are trams, or ideally: metros. This compacts city to something walkable, which is the true solution for local transit, and leaves wide roads to their actual purpose: supplying businesses and grocery stores.
I wasn’t sure where to put this, society, tech or life. It’s an interesting piece on a synthetic city Toyota has made which I had never heard about. Personally, I would hate to live there, but it is notable that they are doing it.
The city also has a website with some more photos (and of course you can just Google Street View it, although the photos are from March 2025 and a lot of it is just construction sites).
If nothing else, it's in a really nice location not far from Hakone and the Izu peninsula.