In fact, some 100 of the center's talented researchers moved to the Woven Planet Group soon after the Woven City project was revealed in January 2020. It was because the Frontier Research Center had been researching robotics and developing energy to fuel cities even before the Woven City announcement.

Another background of the center's establishment had to do with a companywide organizational change.

In April 2016, Toyota overhauled its function-based structure, consisting of areas such as body and engine design, to a product-based in-house company system. As a result, the Frontier Research Center was established as a standalone organization.

Koga shared a comical episode recalling how, a year after the center's establishment, even a former R&D head Takeshi Uchiyamada had little idea what the facility was about. "By the way," Uchiyamada asked him, "why did we set up the Frontier Research Center?"

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Toyota Motor Corporation published this content on 29 June 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 29 June 2022 20:31:01 UTC.