Smart City Trends to Watch for in 2024 and Beyond
Back when we first wrote this collection of smart city trends, it was amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The general sentiment at the time was that shut-down had put many smart city plans on hold. We all recall hearing about the inevitable rise in self-driving cars. Some experts were even predicting, as outlandishly futuristic as it might sound, flying cars. But our dreams of living in Back to the Future II were put on hold when the health crisis caused cities to re-evaluate their infrastructure plans.
However, despite our general lack of hover-crafts, the pandemic did not kill the smart city dream. On the contrary, many cities pursued other less overtly dramatic smart city initiatives in part because of the pandemic. After all, the smartest cities know that a digitally connected community is just as much about promoting public health and safety, improving emergency response, and effective analytics as it is about transportation and sustainability. They also know that in the long run a smart city saves more than it costs.
How smart is your city? A health checklist
The allure of the “smart city” flickers like a neon sign in the urban landscape. Promises of efficiency, sustainability, and improved quality of life abound.
But beyond the buzzwords, how do we assess the true intelligence of our urban environments?
Is yours a shining example of technological prowess, or a city struggling to keep pace with its aspirations?
IN: Goa: Panaji: Ready to adopt EVs, say pvt bus owners
Private bus operators in Goa have expressed their readiness to embrace the shift towards Smart City electric vehicles (EVs) as part of the private bus replacement scheme. During the meeting with chief minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday, private bus operators highlighted their grievances, particularly regarding the absence of prior consultation before the release of the notification announcing the commencement of Smart City EV operations in Panaji and its peripheries, from April 1.tnn
They expressed apprehensions about their future if their services were to be phased out without adequate support measures in place.
Getting smarter? Europe struggling with smart energy efficiency interconnectivity
One of the biggest obstacles to deploying energy efficiency solutions is the part of it you can’t see – the lack of data interoperability between various components. Europe is struggling to ensure smart energy efficiency is truly interconnected.
Today, Europe finds itself at an energy efficiency crossroads. There are more digital applications using household, company and transport energy more efficiently. But at the same time, the various systems are not able to communicate with appliances and utilities effectively, to make switching to smart energy simple for consumers.
US: Florida approves statewide AI traffic management by NoTraffic
Smart sensors, artificial intelligence and cloud computing can help city leaders implement traffic policies and priorities, the developer says.
Dive Brief:
- Florida is the latest state to approve an AI-driven traffic management system from NoTraffic, a Tel Aviv-based developer currently operating in more than 24 states and parts of Canada.
- Orlando, Collier County and Pasco County are among the parts of Florida already using NoTraffic’s systems. With this approval from the Florida Department of Transportation, the company can now operate throughout the state, it said in a March 13 news release.
- NoTraffic’s system combines hardware such as smart sensors with artificial intelligence software to give traffic authorities the ability to control and prioritize traffic flow for all transportation modes, including vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles, the company said.