Smart Cities

While the island has 0.37% the land size of the US, Taiwan has become a hub for startups, sustainable design and tech innovation. This week, 600 inventions will vie for the 'gold medal' – the Platinum Award – at the massive Taiwan Innotech Expo.

Traditional concrete is so last century. A team of engineers has created a concrete that is strong but flexible, can generate electricity and have its qualities fine-tuned for tailor-made builds. And one day it might even help guide driverless cars.

Hyundai has used the grand platform of CES 2020 to unveil its take on the future of urban mobility. At the heart of its plans is its S-A1, an electric flying taxi developed with Uber.

Toyota is clearing some 175 acres of land in the shadow of Mt. Fuji to build and test a ground-up, solar- and hydrogen-powered smart city prototype full of autonomous vehicles, subterranean deliveries, domestic robots and other high-tech goodies.

As we look forward to a 21st century filled with massive mega-cities, and extraordinary technological innovation, we must ask how are our science fiction visions influencing the cities we build, and what can we learn from some of these prescient fictional texts?

​The CBRE Urban Photographer of the Year competition has just revealed its 2018 winners. The resulting winners highlight some amazing snaps that often illustrate the growing disconnect between people and their lived environments.

Urban aerial surveillance is already seen as a crucial element in the information mosaic required by any smart city, and last week's TM Forum Smart City In Focus Conference in Yinchuan (China) saw the first showing of an Unmanned Aerial System that has been purpose-built for the task.

​​Communications Industry Association TM Forum today unveiled its "City as a Platform" Manifesto with the support of 40 cities and industry organisations.​ The manifesto outlines ten key principles for deploying city platforms and is designed to act as guidelines for those setting public policy.​

The Dutch city of Eindhoven is poised to become "the world's first crowdsourced smart city," according to Philips Lighting. Residents will be consulted for ideas about how smart lighting infrastructure should be employed, for development and roll out over the next 15 years.

Philips has announced that it plans to make 110,000 LED street lights in Los Angeles connected. The company will bring the lights online using new plug-and-play CityTouch technology. It is said to be quick and easy to install, and will allow the city's lights to be controlled via the web.

Startup Gogoro drew plenty of attention when it unveiled its battery-swapping Smartscooter network earlier this year, but when and were these were likely to be deployed wasn't entirely clear. The company has now announced a pilot program in Taiwan, ahead of a launch this coming summer.

If the plans of Taiwanese firm Gogoro materialize, then the range of many electric vehicles may not matter so much after all. The company's has grand plans for its Smartscooter, which it says will one day move around smart cities swapping out batteries at vending machines as it runs out of juice.