We’ve Heard Of Smart Homes, But What Is A Smart City?

Smart homes have become a hit in modern homes. Now, enter… Smart cities. This fall, Toyota’s Smart City is set to launch, and some may be wondering what exactly that is.

So, Woven City is a real world test site being built by Toyota at the base of Mount Fuji. The company is using the land where its Higashi-Fuji Plant used to stand. Instead of leaving the area unused after production stopped, Toyota is turning it into a small functioning city. The first phase is meant to open in 2025.

Woven City was invented to essentially try out new tech in a place where people actually live. So, things like self-driving cars, smart homes, and AI-based health tracking.

Basically, they’re moving away from only conducting these experiments inside labs or offices. Toyota wants inventors, startups, and researchers to work directly with residents here.

The city is being built around people, goods, information, and energy. Toyota wants to see how these things can move better through a city when everything is connected. That means packages delivered by robots, streets designed for automated vehicles, and homes that monitor energy use and health in real time.

 

 

How Does It Actually Work?

 

In Woven City, not all roads are the same. Some are designed only for pedestrians, others for slower personal mobility tools like scooters, and others for autonomous vehicles. Homes are fitted with smart sensors and devices that learn from daily routines. They are meant to help residents manage power use, air quality, and even personal health.

On top of testing technologies, Toyota wants to see how a smart city functions when people go about their daily lives… shopping, commuting, socialising, or resting. That’s why Woven City will have actual residents living there full time, not just engineers or short-term testers.

Toyota is also using Woven City to bring in outsiders. Startups and universities are expected to run trials in real-world conditions. Visitors can see how new technologies work, or fail, before they are rolled out to bigger places.

 

What Exactly Is A Smart City Then?

 

A smart city uses digital tools to manage urban life better. The basics such as transport, waste, water, energy, housing, and public safety, are all improved using connected systems.

The technology behind smart cities includes things like cloud computing, AI, sensors, and data sharing platforms. Governments use this information to track patterns, make decisions faster, and keep services running with fewer delays. In cities that already use some of these systems, like Singapore or Barcelona, the results can be seen with fewer traffic jams, better access to services, and quicker emergency response.

But smart cities are not all the same. Some focus on transport, others on energy or housing. The Smart Cities Marketplace in Europe, for example, helps cities improve public transport, build energy-efficient buildings, and share what they learn.

Cities are doing this for a couple of reasons… first, many cities are getting more crowded, and old systems are falling behind. Traffic, pollution, power use, and waste all go up as more people move in. Second, people are used to fast, digital services in their personal lives, so they now expect the same from local government.