When do we finally live in the City of the Future?
The City of the Future has been a long time coming. For many years people have talked about the arrival of "Smart Cities". So far we can see a number of innovations that have made city life more integrated into our digital lives - using our smartphones to connect to services.
Reality Check - not much to see in our Cities
However, looking at European Cities, we still do not see truly revolutionary innovations. But we can imagine them: Autonomous vehicles, autonomous delivery robots and drones.
One major innovation we can see in the US is the near-autonomous drive mode of Tesla cars. This is still neither legal nor available in Europe.
Why so slow? - In a nutshell
Until recently the answer was clear as to why even in the year 2020 we do not see mind-blowing digital innovations that make our lives easier. The various responsibilities and accountabilities that intersect in the public space are complex. Public administration works in most countries, but does so with limited transparency as to rules and regulations, and processing times.
2020 the breakthrough year: 5G and IoT
Finally today we are witnessing an opportunity opening up to digitally integrate the public space: 5G networks are being rolled out. The main challenge in this context - the availability of suitable sites for transmission modules - is actually a major opportunity.
It's simple: Germany has 9 million street lights. To roll out 5G, only 75.000 of these need to be replaced with street lights that can be fitted with 5G modules. These light masts are available now and future-proof - they can be outfitted not only with 5G modules, but also with any type of additional sensor or digital technology one can imagine.
We at Stadtsysteme are proud to have been selected by the market leader in this market: Ligman Evolve. So, rolling out 5G now becomes an enabler to finally make our cities more livable: Creating time-saving and value-creating innovations such as parking solutions, traffic management, connected devices, marketing solutions, augmented reality, public high capacity Wi-Fi and more... the possibilities are endless.
Contact us to find out how you can start now on your journey to reach the Future.