Japanese carmaker Toyota is looking into missiles, said chairman Akio Toyoda. It was announced on stage at CES 2025. On Monday, He hinted at the idea of moving people through space.
The rocket announcement came on stage at CES 2025 as Toyoda explained his company's multiplicity of technologies as “kakezan by invention,” or “invention by multiplication.”
“The sky's the limit when it comes to what's possible when you work together,” he said. After a significant pause, he continued: “Speaking of heaven, we're also exploring rockets. Because the future of mobility shouldn't be limited to just one planet or one car company” — CEO Elon Musk, a possible dig at Tesla, who is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX.
Toyoda didn't reveal any details, other than to show off a rocket stage designed by Interstellar Technologies, a small Japanese aerospace company designed to launch satellites into space. After the conference, Talking about the idea, Toyoda and other executives told TechCrunch that the company is working with Interstellar Technologies to figure out what communications network should be built to support the needs of Woven City, which sits on 175 acres of hills. Mount Fuji is designed as a living laboratory. Toyota has announced plans to start building the city in 2020. It was announced on Monday. The first phase is now open.
“When you think about cars that are constantly moving, you need to have proper telecommunications,” Hajime Kumabe, CEO of Woven at Toyota, told TechCrunch in a media briefing. “This means that communication should not be interrupted, it should not be interrupted, and smooth communication should be achieved.”
He noted that the Woven City's location is mountainous, making it appropriate to study what the proper communication network infrastructure would be to support autonomous vehicles.
Toyota executives confirmed that Woven has invested 7 billion yen, or about $44.3 million, in Interstellar Technologies.
Spaceflight was a wild idea at the end of a press conference. A movement like this is a model. Sony He surprisingly announced that he was working on an electric car. Five years ago at CES, he barely made the news for more than a few minutes on stage.
Toyota has been criticized for years for taking a very cautious stance on developing electric cars. While the automaker's scaling back of its ambitious electrification plans may now seem like a radical shift, Toyota may be eyeing a much different prize—space.