Japan's Woven City, the digitally driven town of tomorrow that Toyota Motor Corp. is building on the foothills of Mount Fuji, could be a future air hub for the country's flying cars.
The vision for airborne offerings from the world's biggest automaker was floated last week in a presentation to local residents on Toyota's plans for the futuristic living laboratory.
James Kuffner, a director at Toyota Motor and CEO of the Woven Planet subsidiary overseeing construction of Woven City, said taking flight was a passion of the founding family.
"It's been a dream of the Toyoda family to build a flying car," Kuffner said while outlining plans to develop Woven City, with its mixed mobility system, green energy grid, sustainable agriculture practices and diverse population of artists, families, entrepreneurs and inventors.
"I used to watch many TV shows about flying cars, and maybe someday Woven City can become the area that introduces flying mobility to Japan and the world," Kuffner said.
Toyota is already dabbling in electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft. It has invested in a Japanese air mobility startup called SkyDrive, and in January 2020, Toyota announced a $394 million investment into a big U.S. rival, Joby Aviation.
