LAS VEGAS -- Toyota Motor Corp. plans to start construction of a prototype "city of the future" featuring state-of-the-art information technology in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, in early 2021, the company said Monday.
Toyota made the announcement in Las Vegas on the day before the Tuesday start there of the Consumer Electronics Show, an international exhibition showcasing consumer technologies.
Other major Japanese auto manufacturers and electric appliance makers also revealed their future designs and technologies on Monday.
Toyota will conduct feasibility tests in the prototype city to connect self-driving vehicle operations, household equipment, robots and other elements with the internet. The prototype city will be built on the site of a Toyota factory that will close at the end of 2020. About 2,000 Toyota employees and others will live in the connected city, which will cover about 700,000 square meters, almost the size of Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo.
In the tests, Toyota plans to use its "e-Palette" electric vehicles now under development, and let them automatically run in the city not only as a means of transportation, but also as moving shops and for other purposes. It will construct buildings mainly with wood, and use fuel cells and solar power generation, for environmental sustainability.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda said at a press conference in Las Vegas on Monday, "Building a complete city from the ground up … is a unique opportunity to develop future technologies."
Amid the changing environment for automobile manufacturers, Toyota has indicated its intention to shift from an automaker to a company that provides various types of transportation services.
Also at the exhibition, Sony Corp. unveiled a prototype electric vehicle equipped with about 30 Sony sensors to detect people and objects, so as to support safe driving. It aims to make a test run of the electric vehicle on public roads in fiscal 2020.
Sony President Kenichiro Yoshida said at a press conference, "The prototype EV embodies how we will contribute to mobility [means of transportation]."
Panasonic Corp. revealed an electric vehicle for fire trucks that was developed jointly with a U.S. company. The EV fire truck is managed remotely via cloud computing.
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