Category Archives: Cities

Convincing City Managers #1

Autonomous Vehicles, Cities

Most major CBDs have a big traffic problem – too many people want to drive into the city compared to the amount of road that is available. And the cars pollute and hinder pedestrians and need parking etc.

Any solution to car glut will get the attention of local government.

There are a number of innovations in the works, that when combined, will be transformative:

  • electric cars – no pollution, cheaper to run, more reliable
  • autonomous vehicles – safer, more room for passengers, no drink driving or drug driving
  • guidance systems – cars take optimal routes, drive closer together, take less room
  • shared cars / public transport – as we leave behind the idea of a car being owned, efficiencies multiply

Combine those 4 trends and we get cars that drive all day, without being parked, without emissions. They travel as convoys to save space. They can be half as wide, meaning double capacity. They know the quickest way from A to B. And without drivers or ownership they are substantially cheaper.

Now tell your local leaders that this can become reality much quicker if a vehicle operating system is developed. Then tell them it won’t cost them a penny.

A study showed that it costs

  • $1.60 per mile for private vehicle operation
  • $0.41 if the vehicle is autonomous and shared
  • $0.15 if that sharing involves strangers taking journeys together

BONUS IDEA

Less congested CBD roads will mean that less roads are needed. CBD land is very expensive (because often you can build a skyscraper on it), so any freed land is worth a lot to the city.

Land made available can be sold for more buildings to be built, or turned into a public facility like a square, park or market.

HALF AS WIDE

An autonomous, electric vehicles has less going on. There is certainly more room in the cabin – no gear stick, no steering wheel, no need for a forward-facing driver. I believe vehicles that are wide enough for two people to share a space, which means half the present width, is achievable. Which means double the capacity of existing roads.

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I can’t imagine any near-future (aside for perhaps flying vehicles) that can increase the load capacity of city streets so dramatically.

Street View Cars Measuring Air Quality

Cities, Internet of Things

I think this is a great indicator of where we are heading with the Internet of Things. Cars are  carrying technology that will eventually have static locations in great numbers. Veniam have created a mesh network for providing WiFi to cities, and is deployed to public transportation. Obviously hundreds more nodes that are fixed is a better solution, but it is more difficult to get going.

Likewise Aclima has teamed up with Google Street View vehicles to monitor the air quality of many locations:

In the first pilot, three Street View cars collected 150 million air quality data points over a month of driving around Denver, Colo. They measured for chemicals that are hazardous to breathe, like nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, black carbon, particulate matter, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).

Again, having these sensors in fixed locations would provide superior and constant data – it will just cost substantially more to deploy, and will require the co-operation of local governments.

If this entry-point for trialling Things becomes commonplace, it will need a name. As this is the first place online to mention these two companies in the same breath, I guess I should give it a go… It could be CarStrapping, SwarmTest or Mobeta.

Perhaps in a few years there will be a company that sends cars loaded with Thing sensors around cities to test them?

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Yet I maintain that the end goal will be static sensors. This means co-operation with local government, which suggests a big role for authorities in the future of mapping. I can imagine a Municipal Operating System that combines IoT Sensors, autonomous taxis, emergency services, and much more.

Barcelona to get a City Operating System

Cities

In this month’s Fortune magazine:

In 2012, Barcelona put out a tender for tech companies to create its OS. The bidding was fierce: 18 companies competed in a process that dragged on for months. In the end, Ferrer signed a contract in May with a consortium comprising Accenture, GDF Suez, and Cellnex to build the system, for the pittance of about $1.6 million. “It was nothing,” Ferrer says. “But for the companies, it was a chance for them to deploy solutions for a lot of cities in the world.”

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The whole article is worth reading, an insight into Barcelona’s quest to be the world’s smartest city.

It is interesting that they are calling it a city operating system. One of my preferred brand names for Map Merge is VEaMOS, which is Virtual Experience and Municipal Operating System. Calling it an OS will certainly help convince cities that they need it.