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?
DyDo DRINCO: Bringing people and vending machines closer together
“Pretty well everyone at our company is a vending machine otaku—we’re all obsessed with vending machines,” says Ryo Maeyama of DyDo DRINCO. Seated beside him, Ayumi Isaka nods with a smile.
DyDo manufactures and sells soft drinks and other beverages, with vending machines serving as its main sales channel. In Woven City, the company plans to test new ways of creating value through vending machines.
Woven City will be a test course for a wide range of mobility solutions for moving people, goods, information, and energy.
The traditional vending machine business makes it difficult to obtain information on user demographics and behaviors, such as who is purchasing products and under what circumstances.
This makes the data from the new city, which can track user actions before and after purchase, very valuable. DyDo will install vending machines to collect such data for use in developing new products and services.
Isaka spends her days developing vending machines, including plans for a version that offers feminine hygiene products alongside beverages. Combining data from Woven City with expertise from other Inventors, she will explore the possibilities of vending machines, going beyond supplying drinks to create new value.
Isaka
I am very excited about opportunities to collaborate with major companies, startups, and other Inventors, as well as the city’s residents, to uncover data that we could not have realized on our own.
I think there is great potential for harnessing sequential data on the movements of residents, and the city as a whole.
Although we have so far managed to obtain peripheral data related to vending machines, I think Woven City will give us a unique chance to view not only our machines, but also the activity in those spaces, such as people’s movements before and after purchasing, or how their behavior is affected by weather.
“Through Woven City, I think we will also be able to gain insights into the kinds of products customers want, not only beverages,” Isaka told us. “That is what I want to test out, and I feel that my mission is to use the data we collect to enhance our vending machine services.”
The vending machines installed in Woven City will be a clear departure from existing models, and DyDo is exploring various formats.
For his part, Maeyama has served as the company’s liaison with WbyT. He hopes to turn vending machines into something “that can engage people on an emotional level.”
Maeyama
While they might not go as far as conversing with people, I feel that imbuing inorganic vending machines with warmth and interactive functions could enable a mutual understanding, leading to vending machines that engage people on an emotional level.
As the first step toward this goal, we will provide the tenants of Woven City with innovative vending machines that overturn established ideas. These machines will be equipped with features that boost customer convenience.
Through these new initiatives, we hope to bridge the distance between our customers and vending machines.
Like Maeyama, many DyDo employees have operational experience handling route sales, which involves things like restocking products and installing vending machines. Maeyama says that this exposure and firsthand knowledge “turns us all into vending machine otaku.”
A self-described vending machine otaku, Maeyama worked as a restocker in Wakayama Prefecture around a decade ago. In those days, he would speak with the people living near vending machines and choose product lineups based on his own experience values.
Now, in order to alleviate labor shortages and improve efficiency, the company employs a “smart operation system” that uses AI technology to minimize the number of staff required.
Maeyama
I feel that, with a customer focus, we can do a lot more to meet diverse needs with vending machines. By doing that, I believe we could create closer connections between people and vending machines.
I’m not sure whether that distance has grown further apart or closer since my time doing restocking, but in the future, I would certainly like to bring people and vending machines even closer together.
Bringing vending machines and people closer together…
Gathering and analyzing data from Woven City will play a key role in fulfilling this mission.
The vending machines created here may one day become much-loved features of various communities. DyDo’s team is keen to begin testing this promising future.
Chairman Toyoda has put the call out for other companies to get involved. In the second part of this article, we introduce the initiatives of Nissin Food Products, UCC Japan, and Zoshinkai Holdings, and the thoughts of the people involved.