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[00:00.40] Japanese automaker Toyota says it is building a research center in a city-like setting to test robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous vehicle technologies.

[00:20.60] Toyota recently announced it had completed the first part, or phase, of the center, called Woven City.

[00:31.48] It sits near the southern Japanese city of Susono.

[00:37.86] Company officials recently showed off the latest progress to reporters from the Associated Press.

[00:47.68] Daisuke Toyoda is an executive for Toyota who is helping lead the project.

[00:55.92] He told the AP that the center was not designed to be a “smart city.”

[01:04.15] However, it aims to carry out technology research and development and be “a test course for mobility.”

[01:16.10] The company said Woven City would serve as a “Living Laboratory.” It aims to test technology systems to support future changes in “the movement of people, goods, information and energy.”

[01:37.62] Toyoda said the center is meant to be a place where researchers and technology company officials can come together and share ideas.

[01:51.97] It will also seek to establish a community with a shared desire “to co-create, develop and refine” new technology products and services.

[02:07.64] Woven City was built on the grounds of a closed Toyota automobile factory.

[02:15.87] The automaker said the project’s first phase covers about 47,000 square meters.

[02:25.96] When completed, it will spread out over 294,000 square meters.

[02:34.73] Building operations on Woven City began in 2021. All the buildings are connected by underground passageways.

[02:47.22] Among planned testing activities will include self-driving vehicles making waste pickups and completing deliveries around the area. Testing operations will center on how people living in cities can best interact with changing technologies.

[03:11.92] Currently, no one lives in Woven City.

[03:15.90] When it opens, officials plan on having about 100 people living there.

[03:25.99] They will be called “weavers.”

[03:31.31] These are workers employed by Toyota and its partner companies making other products.

[03:35.02] When AP reporters visited the area, Japanese coffee maker UCC was serving hot drinks from a self-driving bus.

[03:46.71] The bus was parked in an area surrounded by still-empty housing.

[03:53.35] Toyota has supported electric vehicle (EV) technology in the past.

[04:00.52] However, the company is currently involved in a push for hydrogen, the energy of choice in Woven City.

[04:10.89] Keisuke Konishi is an automobile expert at Japan’s Quick Corporate Valuation Research Center.

[04:22.31] He told the AP Toyota has plans to expand into self-driving vehicle services to compete with Google’s Waymo and other large companies.

[04:37.45] Konishi noted the company has the money for such development even if it means building up a completely new business. “Toyota has the money to do all that,” he said.

[04:53.92] Toyota officials have said they do not expect Woven City to make money, at least not for the first few years.

[05:05.60] Several other futuristic developments have been planned in other areas of the world over the years.

[05:14.37] They have included efforts in Toronto, Canada; Saudi Arabia; Abu Dhabi; and San Francisco, California.

[05:26.06] But those projects are either still being developed or have been canceled.