❱❱ Woven City has been designed as a living laboratory to develop human-centred transport and communications of the future
❱❱ A core function in MaaS in Woven City is autonomous, on-demand transport, which will be provided by the electric Toyota e-Palette, left and below
A NEW KIND OF CITY There will be three types of streets: for faster vehicles only, for a mix of lower speed traffic, personal mobility and pedestrians, and for pedestrians on a park-like promenade. These weave together to form a grid pattern to accelerate the testing of autonomy. The city is planned to be fully sustainable, with buildings made mostly from wood to minimise the carbon footprint, using traditional Japanese wood joinery, combined with robotic production methods. The rooftops will be covered in photo-voltaic panels to generate solar power supported by hydrogen fuel cells. Toyota plans to weave in the outdoors throughout the city, with native vegetation and hydroponics. To move residents through the city, only fully-autonomous, zero- emissions vehicles will be allowed on the main thoroughfares. In and throughout Woven City, autonomous Toyota e-Palettes will be used for transport and deliveries. There will also be one underground road used to transport goods. The community will begin with roughly 360 residents, mainly senior citizens, families with young children and inventors, though it will eventually have a population of more than 2,000 people, including Toyota employees.
THE E-PALETTE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE The primary mode of transport planned for Woven City is the Toyota e-Palette, a battery-electric vehicle for autonomous mobility-as-a-service (Autono-MaaS) applications that is perfectly aligned with the ethos of Woven City. Toyota has been developing the operations management system to support the provision of services that will enable practical use of the e-Palette for future mobility services in general. Now, in collaboration with a range of partners, it is also planning to operate the vehicles in Woven City whilst targeting commercial use in multiple areas and regions in the early 2020s. Akio Toyoda announced the e-Palette in 2018 as a symbol of
mobility that goes beyond cars to provide services and new value to customers. The vehicle has since been through a frantic period of development and prototyping culminating in its appearance at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show. It will provide a loop-line bus
March 2021 /// Testing & Test Houses /// 13
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