Toyota to use AI in new city build
Toyota, one of the biggest automobile manufacturer, Toyota, is employing artificial intelligence to make a futuristic city for 2,000 staff members and families. The city will be powered by robots as well and will be governed by an operating system with roads dedicated for self-driving vehicles. The company has begun laying the foundation for a 175-acre smart city in Japan and says that artificial intelligence and futuristic technologies will act as a ‘living laboratory’ which raises many eyebrows. Being built at the base of Mount Fuji, the “Woven City” will be situated approximately 62 miles from Tokyo. The aim of building such a city is to serve as a testing ground for modern technology that can be established across other urban environments like robotics, AI, and interconnected smart homes.
Eftpos to power Australian smart cities with blockchain
Australia’s leading point-of-sale technology provider Eftpos Australia has revealed ambitious plans to roll out blockchain-powered autonomous vehicles and smart cities in Australia built using Hedera’s Hashgraph.
In January, Eftpos became Hedera’s 17th governing council member and Australia’s first Hedera node operator. Hedera has been expanding its governing council recently, with Shinhan Bank joining earlier this month, French utility giant Electricite de France onboarding in March, and Standard Bank Group becoming the network’s first African node operator in February.
Smart city tech critical to post-pandemic recovery
Digital innovation has accelerated significantly despite many industries ground to a halt as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with its ensuing lockdown restrictions and social distancing requirements. The development of smart cities, in particular, has gained momentum during the past 12 months, with recent research showing the size of the industry is set to double from $410.8 billion in 2020 to $820.7 billion by 2025 as a result. Tech pundits say COVID-19 has emphasised the importance of technologies such as big data, 5G, location-based services, geo-tagging services, beacon technology, and VR/AR. While many have championed the use of these technologies for many years due to the value smart cities can deliver to both local governments and their citizens, others are now recognising the technologies’ potential to lead us out of the coronavirus crisis and initiate a return to something resembling normal.
Cyber-attacks pose threats to smart city technologies
US researchers have asked 76 cybersecurity experts to rank nine different technologies based on a range of different criteria. Emergency alerts, street video surveillance, and smart traffic signals have emerged as among the riskiest smart city technologies in a report by University of California, Berkeley. A report, The Cybersecurity Risks of Smart City Technologies: What Do Experts Think?, Led by an interdisciplinary team of scholars from the university, the report recommends that local officials should consider whether cyber-risks outweigh the potential gains of technology adoption on a case-by-case basis.Other technologies in order of ranking (4th to 9th) were: water consumption tracking; smart tolling; public transit open data; gunshot detection; smart waste or recycling bins; and satellite water leak detection.