Japanese automaker Toyota is “exploring rockets,” chairman Akio Toyoda announced on stage at CES 2025 on Monday, while hinting at the idea of moving people through space.
The rocketry mention on the CES 2025 stage came while Toyoda was in the middle of explaining how he views his company’s myriad technologies as “invention by kakezan,” or “invention by multiplication.”
“When it comes to what’s possible when you work together, the sky’s the limit,” he said. After a dramatic pause, he continued: “And speaking of the sky, we’re exploring rockets, too. Because the future of mobility shouldn’t be limited to just Earth, or just one car company” — a possible dig at Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX.
Toyoda initially didn’t offer any details except for showing a rendering on stage of a rocket designed by Interstellar Technologies, a private Japanese spaceflight company that’s working on a small launch vehicle made to put satellites into space. After the conference, Toyoda and other executives elaborated on the idea, telling TechCrunch the company is working with Interstellar Technologies to explore what kind of telecommunications network should be established to support the needs of Woven City, a prototype city located on 175 acres at the foot of Mount Fuji designed to be a living laboratory. Toyota first announced plans to build the city in 2020 and announced Monday the first phase is now open.
“When you think about cars that will be constantly moving, you need to have appropriate telecommunications,” Hajime Kumabe, the CEO of Woven by Toyota, told TechCrunch during a media briefing. “This means that the communication should not be interrupted, disrupted, and that seamless communication that is achieved.”
He also noted that Woven City’s location is mountainous, making it appropriate to explore what would be the appropriate communication network infrastructure to support autonomous vehicles.
The executives also confirmed that Woven by Toyota has invested 7 billion yen, or about $44.3 million, into Interstellar Technologies.
Spaceflight is a wild idea to tease at the end of a press conference, though a move like this has some precedent. Sony surprise-announced it was working on an electric car five years ago at CES and barely gave the news more than a few minutes of stage time.
Toyota, meanwhile, has been lambasted for years for its overly cautious stance on developing electric vehicles. Not only does that now look like a prescient move as big automakers scale back their ambitious plans for electrification, maybe Toyota simply had its eyes on a much different prize — space.
