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Toyota’s Woven City Opens Its Doors: A Glimpse into the Future of Urban Living

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

January 7, 2025

On Monday, Toyota reached a major milestone with the completion of the first phase of its ambitious Woven City project. Nestled at the base of Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, this futuristic “smart city” is set to welcome its first 100 residents this fall, with plans to expand the population to 2,000 over time.

Key Highlights

Woven City, Toyota’s groundbreaking “smart city,” is being developed at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan. Announced in 2020, this innovative urban environment will serve as a testing ground for cutting-edge technologies in a real-world setting. The city is designed to explore advancements in key areas such as:

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Autonomous Vehicles: Streets will be divided into distinct zones for pedestrians, cyclists, and self-driving cars, ensuring seamless mobility for all.
Robotics: The city will host robots designed to assist with daily tasks and infrastructure maintenance.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI will be integrated to manage everything from smart homes to energy grids, enhancing the city’s efficiency.
Internet of Things (IoT): A network of interconnected devices and systems will form the backbone of Woven City, fostering a truly integrated urban environment.

Design and Sustainability

The city’s innovative architecture comes from Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and his renowned studio, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). With a focus on sustainability, most of the buildings will feature eco-friendly materials like wood. The city will run on hydrogen fuel cells and solar power, aiming to reduce its environmental impact. Initially, Woven City is expected to attract around 2,000 residents, mainly engineers, researchers, and technologists, who will be actively engaged in the city’s ongoing development and testing.

A Vision for the Future

For Toyota, Woven City is more than just a high-tech hub; it’s a prototype for what future cities could look like. The name “Woven City” embodies the concept of interlacing various forms of mobility and technology into the urban fabric, creating a harmonious balance between traditional city life and futuristic innovation. Toyota envisions this city as a model for more sustainable, connected, and technologically advanced ways of living.

Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda shared his excitement for the project at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas, saying, “This year, residents will begin moving in as we slowly bring Woven City into operation. We want to accelerate the pace at which new technologies can be tested and developed in Woven City.”

Looking to the Stars

In addition to its work on Woven City, Toyota is exploring the frontiers of space. At CES, Toyoda also revealed that Toyota is looking into the development of orbital rockets. Through its subsidiary, Woven by Toyota, the company is investing 7 billion yen ($44.4 million) in Interstellar Technologies, a Japanese private space company focused on launching satellites.

Toyoda emphasized the need for more than just one car company leading technological advancements, referencing Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk’s ventures into space with SpaceX. “We are also exploring the possibility of rockets because the future of mobility should not be limited to Earth or to one car company,” Toyoda remarked.

Interstellar Technologies, founded in 2013, has already completed seven launches of its small MOMO suborbital rockets, with the company’s sights set on developing larger rockets like the ZERO and DECA series to deliver spacecraft into orbit.

Toyota aims to leverage its expertise in mass production to help Interstellar Technologies create cost-effective rockets, potentially giving the company a competitive edge in the global launch market. Toyota’s new space ambitions position it alongside rivals like Mitsubishi, whose subsidiary Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has developed the H3 series rockets, designed to rival SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in terms of cost and capability.

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Europe’s Deadly Summer Heat Exposed The Cost Of A Warming Continent

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 23, 2026

Europe experienced its deadliest summer for heat-related deaths on record in 2026, with an estimated 24,400 excess deaths linked to extreme temperatures across 30 countries. Researchers estimate that human-induced climate change was responsible for around 32,000 of the deaths attributed to heat in the study’s broader analysis, accounting for 65% of the total.

The findings highlight the growing public-health consequences of global warming, largely driven by fossil fuel use, as extreme heat becomes more frequent and severe.

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A Summer Of Dangerous Heat

Between June and August, heatwaves pushed temperatures in Western Europe to an average of 2.9°C above the 1991–2020 norm, with some days reaching 12°C above average. Nearly a third of estimated heat-related deaths occurred during a particularly intense heatwave between 17 June and 1 July.

“These numbers are a stark reminder that our hotter, more extreme summers are having an increasingly severe impact on public health,” said Dr Clair Barnes, a researcher at Imperial College London and co-author of the study.

The estimated toll exceeded previous peaks of around 29,000 deaths in summer 2022 and 28,000 in 2003 across the region studied.

How Researchers Estimated The Toll

Researchers modelled the relationship between temperature and mortality across 854 urban areas in the EU, UK, Norway and Switzerland, covering around 40% of the population in the 30 countries studied.

The analysis incorporated temperature records, age, socioeconomic conditions, environmental factors and access to healthcare. By comparing actual temperatures with those expected without human-induced warming, the team estimated the additional deaths attributable to climate change.

Final official mortality figures for summer 2026 are not yet available in many countries, and heat-related deaths are often underreported because their effects can be difficult to identify directly.

Older People Face The Greatest Risk

People aged 85 and over accounted for roughly half of the estimated deaths. However, the impact extended across age groups, with around 800 excess deaths among adults aged 20–44 and approximately 6,000 among people under 65.

Southern Europe experienced the highest mortality burden, reflecting hotter temperatures and other vulnerabilities, including air pollution, limited green space and unequal access to healthcare and heat-alert systems.

Italy, France And Spain Record Highest Toll

Italy recorded an estimated 13,303 heat-related excess deaths, followed by France with 7,268 and Spain with 6,824. Germany recorded around 6,340, while the UK saw an estimated 4,354 deaths.

In the UK, the heat also placed significant pressure on healthcare services. Andrew Hartle, Professor of Practice of Anaesthesia at Imperial College Healthcare, said demand during the summer resembled that of a severe winter virus season.

Cities Urged To Strengthen Heat Protection

Researchers say cities can reduce the risks through climate shelters, external shading and building retrofits, alongside measures to help residents avoid exposure during the hottest hours. Checking on vulnerable people, staying hydrated and following heat alerts are also important.

The researchers stress that adaptation must go hand in hand with reducing fossil fuel use to limit further warming. The findings underline that extreme heat is already a major public-health threat across Europe, with thousands of lives at risk each summer.