Japanese car giant Toyota has announced that it is conducting research into rocket technology. Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda made the announcement during a keynote speech at CES 2025. Toyoda also hinted at the idea of moving people into space.
In his speech, Toyoda explained the company’s various technologies through what he calls “invention by multiplication.” “The sky is the limit when we work together,” Toyoda said, before adding after a dramatic pause: “And speaking of the sky, we’re also looking into rockets. Because the future of mobility shouldn’t be limited to Earth or just one car company.” This was seen as an indirect reference to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Although Toyoda did not provide details, he showed off a rocket design developed by Interstellar Technologies, a private Japanese spaceflight company. The company is working on launch vehicles designed to launch small satellites into space. Later in the press briefing, Toyoda and other executives announced that the initiative aims to support the development of a suitable telecommunications network for an experimental city project called Woven City.
Woven City is a 175-acre living laboratory at the foot of Mount Fuji, announced by Toyota in 2020. The event announced that the first phase of the city has already been put into operation.
Hajime Kumabe, CEO of Woven by Toyota, which is managing Toyota’s Woven City project, emphasized that a suitable telecommunications network is necessary for the vehicles to move continuously: “This means that there must be no interruption or disruption of communication, and that a continuous and stable communication system must be ensured.”
Kumabe also noted that the city’s mountainous location is conducive to researching suitable communications infrastructure to support autonomous vehicles.
The executives also confirmed that Toyota has invested 7 billion yen (about 44.3 million US dollars) in Interstellar Technologies.
