As part of the novelties presented at CES 2020, the largest technology fair in the world, the Japanese consortium Toyota plans to build an experimental city of the future in Japan, to test technologies such as autonomous driving in real places.
News such as cars that will drive alone and the construction of smart homes, in which most management and execution processes will be dominated by technology, sustainability and artificial intelligence.
The living laboratory will not only deal with cars, but is also planned for the investigation of the intergenerational co-existence of the future, such as robotics, the network connection of homes, also through artificial intelligence will be used to implement the new forms Public transport, new approaches in agriculture, health care, among others.
It is planned that around 2,000 people would live in the ‘city of the future’, including Toyota employees with their families, as well as retirees and researchers. For this, the space of an old factory of the same company, near Mount Fuji, will be used.
A large part of the old infrastructure, such as fuel cell plants for energy production, will be placed underground. This is because much of the infrastructure will work based on hydrogen. The buildings will be built with wood and equipped with solar cells on the roof, creating a futuristic and at the same time ecological city.
According to the information provided, the site covers an area of about 70 hectares. The Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, has been hired as an urban planner, and laying the first stone is planned for 2021.
«Building a complete city from scratch, even on a small scale like this, is a unique opportunity to develop future technologies, including a digital operating system for the city’s infrastructure», said Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda.