A futuristic city which will have driverless cars is due to be completed in 2024.
Woven City, Japan, is an upcoming metropolis conceptualised by automotive manufacturing firm Toyota that was first announced in 2020.
The company started constructing the $10 billion (£7.8 million) project three years ago in 2021 and is currently on track for completion later in 2024.
The growing city will incorporate a network of renewable, energy-efficient Toyota vehicles when it officially opens.
They will serve a comparatively tiny, exclusive, four-figure community in a coveted spot at the base of Mount Fuji.
When complete, Woven City will stretch over 175 acres (0.2 square miles), and accommodate 2,000 people.
Every resident living in the “high-tech, sensor-laden metropolis” will participate in a live human experiment, as Toyota plans to involve them in tests of its autonomous vehicles.
Upon completion this year, the driverless vehicles – named “E-palettes” – will be used for transport, mobile shops and deliveries, with sensors planted in traffic lights, buildings and roads guiding their paths through the city.
Toyota expects to gather a massive, continuous data stream from the city’s population that documents local participation and traffic.
Autonomous vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists will each have their own road on which they can travel.
The project will also look beyond travel, as the firm also plans to create smart homes that can take out trash on their own and even automatically restock refrigerators, and the entire ecosystem will run on hydrogen.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda has hailed Woven City as a “new chapter in our story and in our industry”.
However, Alexander Soley, an independent consultant focusing on autonomous vehicles, said some of the city’s residents may not feel so happy to test Toyota’s newest inventions.
He said: “When it comes to new technologies, you can’t just release them and expect them to get picked up, they need to sit with people for a good period of time.”
Mr Soley added: “Elderly families are a group targeted to live in the city.
“How will they feel about stepping foot in a car without a driver? That’s what Toyota’s trying to figure out.”