At CES 2025, Toyota revealed five "Inventor" companies that will conduct trials in Woven City. What kind of future will they seek to create on this test course for mobility?
“We believe that by combining Toyota's strengths with those from different industries, we'll be able to create new value, new products and new services, we could never achieve on our own.”
On January 7 (Japan time), Chairman Akio Toyoda made this comment as part of his speech at CES 2025 in Las Vegas.
That same day, the website of Woven by Toyota (WbyT), which handles development for Toyota and Woven City, announced the names of five companies that will trial new technologies in the city.
After officially opening this fall, Woven City will host various trials by companies from the Toyota Group and beyond, as well as startups and university research groups. They will be known as the city’s “Inventors.”
Inventors will work with Weavers—the city’s residents and visitors—who will participate in trials and provide feedback from their daily lives. The project will also harness Toyota’s monozukuri expertise and WbyT’s tools and services to test new forms of value creation to solve social issues and shape the future.
The five companies announced in January will form the first cohort of Inventors.
From air conditioning and vending machines to food, coffee, and education, they all work in areas unrelated to Toyota’s carmaking.
What sort of experiments will these Inventors undertake at Toyota’s mobility test course? And what kind of chemistries will emerge from the “invention by multiplication” approach?
Toyota Times interviewed representatives from each of the five companies, who shared details about their efforts and thoughts on Woven City.
Daikin: Producing Well-being for All with pollen-less spaces
Daikin, a renowned air condition manufacturer, will begin testing two types of spaces in the fall.
The first is “personalized functional spaces” that are tailored to various lifestyle situations, from aiding concentration and relaxation to improving sleep quality. This is done by controlling the air environment, as well as audio, visuals, and other sensory information.
By observing how people experience these spaces, Daikin will test whether they can boost work productivity or create new experience values.
The company’s other focus will be “pollen-less spaces.” Daikin will create rooms that are better at keeping out pollen, and monitor how they alleviate residents’ pollen-related discomfort, improve the productivity of indoor work, and contribute to overall well-being.
To test these pollen-less spaces, designated homes in Woven City will be fitted with specially designed ventilation systems that adjust air pressure to reduce the amount of pollen entering the room. The systems will also include air purifiers linked to purpose-built sensors to detect and swiftly remove indoor pollen. In addition, Daikin will work with residents to observe changes in behavior.
Both types of spaces require real-world data tied to the lifestyles of residents over prolonged periods. Woven City is uniquely equipped to offer such conditions.
Shota Hori and Uho Oh are part of the genba team testing pollen-less spaces. Hori is tasked with overall implementation, while Oh mainly handles equipment design and data analysis.
The pair have been busy devising the ventilation system for the trials, including conducting the underlying research in various fields. They look forward to finding keen participants among the people of Woven City.
Hori
Pollen is said to enter the home mainly via ventilation or being brought in by people. As such, our trials in Woven City will try to minimize pollen infiltration by focusing on ventilation filters and air pressure control.
To deal with pollen being brought in from outside—by people returning home, for example—we will also install interior and exterior pollen sensors linked to air purifiers.
At present, however, our system is not capable of completely shutting out all pollen. We want to make improvements by getting feedback from residents and notifying them of current pollen conditions, both indoors and outdoors, hopefully leading to some modest behavioral changes.
We believe this will be possible in Woven City, where everyone possesses an inventor mindset. We want to work with the residents to explore various ideas that can lead to more pollen-less spaces.
The mission of Woven City is to “build the future fabric of life.”
Although few people are likely to think about ventilation as much as heating or cooling, I consider it to be very important. I want to create a future where ventilation is woven more closely into people’s lives.
Soon after joining the company in 2019, Uho Oh “enrolled” at the Daikin Information and Communications Technology College*. Since completing the two-year training period, he has been assisting preparations for the Woven City trials.
＊A personnel development program set up by Daikin to train employees in AI and data analysis technologies.
Oh says he “didn’t have a great deal of knowledge” about architecture and construction. Seeking advice from people in the field and other departments at Daikin, he continues to gain expertise in areas including equipment design and communication systems. At the same time, he is involved in discussing and reviewing the planned ventilation systems to ensure they are suitable for the trials.
Having received help from many colleagues inside and outside the company, he sees Woven City as an opportunity to bring happiness and well-being to many people.
Oh
Thanks to the help I’ve received from many people, I feel like the project is finally taking shape.
I myself suffer from hay fever, so every year, I have to take medication to get through pollen season. That’s why spring is not my favorite time of year.
Through these efforts, I want to show that significantly reducing contact with pollen can help people to lead happier lives.
I hope the outcomes we obtain here will be adopted widely in society so that in the future, more people can enjoy springtime rather than feeling gloomy.
I joined this big project right after receiving my official placement (upon graduating from the Daikin Information and Communications Technology College), and it has given me valuable experience. Though we haven’t even reached the starting line for these trials, I am determined to see them through to the end.
I also hope to build on this experience in any future projects I might be involved in, working with people inside and outside the company to help bring more happiness and well-being into the world.
With testing set to kick off in the fall, Hori and Oh have been in touch with the WbyT team, drawing inspiration from their passion for Woven City. “By approaching the challenge earnestly, we too can aim higher than we would have thought possible.”
