Smart City: Tech Future Trends in Technology

Introduction

The future Smart city will use the data and technology together to improve the welfare of the society (McKinsey, 2018). The smart city infrastructure will be built using Internet of Things, artificial Intelligence, automation, big data analytics, robotics, Nano technology and many more. There will be sensors everywhere to collect data to determine traffic, air quality, temperature and many more. The whole city will be connected, and all the data will be segregated and analyzed. There will be very high-speed wireless network connecting the entire city. Smart cities aim to build a better living with green atmosphere, crime free city, less traffic congestion, zero accidents, by effective use of renewable energy, zero greenhouse gas emissions, by developing efficient healthcare, drainage, education, and software applications.

Project

The main idea of the project is to determine the critical technology components required to build a smart city in 15- 25 years.

Project Scope

To identify the critical technology components, their functions, their status, issues preventing them from being commercialized in the market, and the time taken to implement them in the market in developing a smart city within 15-25 years.

High Level Requirements

Online research was performed to identify the most critical technologies for building the smart city in 15-25 years. I felt that the areas like transportation, electricity, roads are very important for building a smart city. The following are the technology components that will be available in 15-25 years for efficiently building the smart city. They are·Pop. Up Air bus vehicle·Use of Nuclear fusion to generate electricity Built-in auto induction lanes Critical Technologies:

Pop. Up Air bus vehicle - Effective Transportation

The Pop.Up air bus vehicle is designed to reduce the traffic congestion that is faced in the current world. This is a two-seater vehicle that can function like autonomous car and as well like drone. This vehicle can operate both in land and in air. The passenger will be able to book a ride through the designated app. This vehicle with the use of AI will determine the route for the travel, the mode of travel whether air or on ground or both, cost, the option of sharing the ride and the cost involved. Once the passenger boards the vehicle, it confirms the authenticity of the passengers by scanning their face to check whether they are the ones who requested for the ride. They communicate with the passenger through virtual screens. When there is a sudden congestion on road, the passenger can ask for an air ride and the drone vehicle will attach to the Pop.Up air bus and will start to fly. As soon as the passengers reach their respective destination, this vehicle will reach to its assigned work station for charging the vehicles and will stay there till they get a request for a ride from the next passenger. The car mode can run up to 62 miles when charged once. The Pop.Up air bus vehicle is still in the development phase and expected to be in the market in another 15 years. (Stacy, 2018)

Use of Nuclear fusion to generate electricity

Power is usually generated using either water, wind, coal, and many other sources. These fuels are soon going to be extinct due to the enormous usage of it. The aim of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is to produce energy equivalent to the sun through the process of nuclear fusion with the Tokamak power plant. In Nuclear fusion, the power is generated by combining two atomic nuclei to form the nucleus. This happens when heating the nuclei of hydrogen and tritium at very high temperatures of about 150 million degrees and at lower pressure to form helium. It is predicted to supply infinite power supply by 2040. This helium that is released is not hazardous. (Tom, 2018)

Smart roads - Built-in auto induction lanes

Many electric cars unlike Tesla are able travel 20mph, 40 mph and 60 mph when charged once. It is difficult to travel longer distances with these cars as they must stop many times at the recharging stations. To overcome this difficulty, the roads will have coils and a special receiver that will be fitted to these electric cars. The vehicles will be able to charge from these coils and enabling a wireless charging of vehicles. The current disadvantage of is the receiver and the charging coils should be very close to each other to initiate and to continue charging. Many questions like whether the magnetic fields that is generated will have an adverse health conditions effect on the people travelling in the bus? Who will be responsible to pay the amount for the power used? How will it be detected? Is there is wastage of power? Once the issues are fixed, all car manufacturers must redesign cars and the roads need to constructed facilitating the charging of electric vehicles. This is projected to be implemented fully by 2040. (Jeremy, 2017)

Alternative Technology

Hydrogen fueled vehicle. The alternative for the electric vehicles is the hydrogen fueled vehicles. These vehicles do not emit green house gas. It will be the future fuel, as hydrogen is available in large quantities in earth. These vehicles will inhale the oxygen from the atmosphere and combines with the hydrogen that is available in the vehicle’s tank to produce electricity and the water is sent out. It takes only few minutes to fill hydrogen from the hydrogen fuel station like we do for petrol or diesel whereas one must spend at least 30 minutes in charging the electric cars. The cars can run for 300mph when the tank is once filled fully with hydrogen. Companies like Toyota, BMV have shown interest in manufacturing these hydrogens fueled vehicles. These vehicles can be successfully implemented only when enough hydrogen fuel stations are built. Currently this technology lacks fuel stations thereby it will take some years to be successfully on toads.

Summary of Components

All the three technologies discussed are found to be efficient. The Pop.Up air bus will reduce the traffic congestions and will provide a pleasant view and travel for its passengers with the use of AI. This technology can be implemented only when other necessary features like the roads, charging stations, buildings that paves way for them to travel through air are available. Airbus and Italian design house are involved in the designing and manufacturing it while Audi has taken the responsibility of its automation and to improve its battery. Currently the Company aims to redesign a lighter Pop.Up vehicle. It is estimated to be available in the market in 15 years after successfully passing the test drives. The Hydrogen fueled vehicles are renewable resources, which are not hazardous in nature and do not have any negative impacts to the climate. They may be costlier to manufacture and to purchase such vehicles, but the fuel prices will be cheap and affordable since it is hydrogen. Issues like they are flammable and requires more storage capacity must be considered. For these cars to be implemented in the market, many hydrogen fuel stations are to be set up across the globe.

Currently Toyota has taken the responsibility of producing the hydrogen fueled vehicles. The negative aspects of these vehicles are yet to be resolved and a cost efficient and safe hydrogen fueled vehicle is projected to be available in few years. The built-in auto induction lanes are found to be less time consuming. For it to be successful, the current issues are to be rectified and new roads need to be constructed. Less production of electric vehicles will have adverse impacts if the roads are constructed with charging coils.

Summary of Technology

The above technologies are useful in creating smart city. Careful steps to be taken where there are greater chances of facing security beaches and other risks. Citizens of the smart city should be aware of the technology used. Huge investment is required to build smart city which in turn will provide benefits and healthy and happy living to the citizens.

References:

1. Fingas. (2017, March 8). Airbus unveils an autonomous, modular flying car concept.
2. Galeon. (2017, January 18). Have Parking Tickets? This Robot Lawyer Can Come to Your Rescue.
3. McKinsey Global Institute. (2018, June). Smart cities: Digital solutions for a more livable future.
4. Metcalfe. (2019, June 28). Nuclear Fusion Power Could Be Here by 2030, One Company Says.
5. Smith, C. (2018, March 6). Audi Joins Italdesign And Airbus On Pop.Up Next Flying Car Concept.
6. Taylor. (2013, February 13). Urban skyscraper proposed for the year 2050.
7. Williams. (2017, January 23). Transport innovation of the week: electric charging lanes.