No one has a road map for securing a connected city – but there should be a whole atlas of such maps
Here at CES, Toyota just announced plans to build a 175 acre (70 hectare) playground in Japan to test connected cities, complete with cars, buildings and real residents willing to be something of ongoing beta-testers. While this promises to be closely watched by the industry, it also points to the need to get some test-world feedback prior to launching connected cities in the real world.
Not so with most of the exhibitors here who merely dream of a connected city and hope for the best. Who will secure it? Where will they get the budget? Where will they get the high-priced expertise to make it all run? These, and a host of other related questions will come to the fore in 2020. No one has a good road map.
Some cities are making progress and are trying to work with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a framework eventually. This is good progress, but the cities that are taking the lead have very high tax bases to fund such initiatives, have invested heavily to build and own the infrastructure necessary to “encourage” third-party providers to play nice, and have buy-in from local legislators. All of these things must be in place to have a chance of making it all work. They usually aren’t.
I recently sat at a county planning meeting where officials wrestled with 5G rollout being foisted upon them. Those in charge at that meeting had to have 5G explained at a fundamental level. This means they’re not really in a position to weigh in as expe ..
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