Can SA embrace ‘cities of the future’ for growth?
Upgrading to smarter towns will bring enormous benefits — not least of which will be reduced traffic congestion
Smart cities are always depicted as futuristic havens with shiny skyscrapers, flying cars, intelligent robots and the odd alien. In reality, they are less sci-fi but no less game-changing.Given that most people already live in cities – and the few smart cities built from scratch around the world are slowly gaining traction – what we understand as a smart city might start as simply noteworthy upgrades to our home towns.The first wave of this future starts with self-driving cars. We’ll soon see more of them, but in limited environments like highways, where the parameters are less complex. A typical suburban road, particularly in SA, is awash with hazards for autonomous vehicles to identify — from pedestrians to cyclists and the inevitable mother with a pram. A highway only has other cars and is within a clearly defined space (with helpful road markings and warnings about when not to overtake).But what if the entire city had a grid of smart cameras these autonomous cars could tap into?...
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