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Nagoya – Toyota has started building a smart city at the foot of Mount Fuji. The so-called Woven City will be a testing ground for new technologies including robotics and artificial intelligence.

Toyota Motor Corporation has held the ground-breaking ceremony for a smart city at the foot of Mount Fuji, writes an article in The Japan Times. Woven City is being built at the former Toyota factory site in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture. Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, who designed the 2 World Trade Center in New York City, has been commissioned to plan the layout.  

About 360 people will initially move into the city, which is going to test new technologies including robotics, artificial intelligence, smart homes and autonomous vehicles. The population is expected to increase to over 2,000, including Toyota employees, according to the article. Woven City will be powered by electricity from fuel cells and solar panels, and the houses will be mainly made of wood.

Toyota, which will run the city with partner companies including telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph, said in the article that the streets in Woven City will be split into three sections — faster vehicles, personal transporters and pedestrians, and pedestrians-only.

"We will take on the challenge of creating a future where people of diverse backgrounds are able to live happily," Toyota President Akio Toyoda said at the ground-breaking ceremony, as quoted in the article. The company has not revealed when construction is expected to finish.