SMART CITIES LIVE

During the late part of the 19th century, the world saw a revolution like no other. Human and animal labor was replaced by machines. Education and medicine improved exponentially. And, lastly, people started to move to from the countryside to urban environments, turning busy towns into dense cities. Now, as we approach the 4th Industrial Revolution we are moving towards smart cities. Cleaner transportation systems for cities The revolution humanity experience during the late

A San Francisco-based startup has recently created the world’s first cloud-connected electric motorbike called simply the M1. How does this work, exactly? The M1 electric motorbike is a ‘two-wheeled Tesla’, a bike with motorcycle-like capabilities and has the same cost as a Vespa, but with a unique style that urban dwellers crave. The best part? You don’t need a license to ride it. ‘At Monday Motorbikes, we have created the world’s first electric bicycle with motorcycle capab

GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) have begun testing driverless cars, inviting the public to try the shuttle buses and give their opinion on them. The latest phase of the GATEway Project, the prototype shuttle, named ‘Harry’ in honour of navigation visionary John Harrison, will be tested on 2km route around the Greenwich Peninsula. The shuttle is using advanced sensors and autonomy software to detect and avoid obstacles whilst carrying members of the public,

Cluj Napoca is one of most forward thinking cities in Romania, often called the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe due to its large IT industry. Its ambition to become a genuine smart city started to drive the interest of both citizens and entrepreneurs, two categories that require authorities to be more open and transparent in their governance. In the majority of cases, a smart city strategy includes the idea of transparent governance, involving different stakeholders in the d

IBM expands its self-driving patents portfolio with a machine learning system that can dynamically shift control of an autonomous vehicle between a human driver and a vehicle control processor in the event of a potential emergency, providing a safety measure that can contribute to accident prevention. IBM researchers, with a background in computational neuroscience, used their understanding of the human biological cognition and behavior generation in the brain to develop a ne

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, announced the plans to fight air pollution in the city. Starting on 8 April 2019, the most polluting vehicles will be charged a daily fee to be allowed into the city center. Subsequently, in 2020 the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will be extended across Greater London for heavy diesel vehicles, including buses, coaches, and lorries, the zone will be further extended in 2021 to include cars and vans in all areas up to the North and South Circu

The Environment Bureau (ENB) in Hong Kong announced that its 2017-2018 budget would have two major changes to regulations regarding their electric vehicles First Time Registration (FTR) scheme. The first regards privately owned electric vehicles (EVs), the tax will now only be waived up to $97,500 and the second refers to electric commercial vehicles which will no longer benefit from the FTR waiver scheme. The main reason for the new tax system is to limit the growth of the p

How would you feel if an airport’s appearance were to change overnight? If the runways would change from being long and flat to circular shapes, beautifully surrounding the airport? If you are a plane maniac like many, you would probably dismiss the thought. But it could become reality in the next few years. Why? Because of the research project funded by the EU in which aviation expert Henk Hesselink and his team at the Netherlands Aerospace Centre are working on. The project

Ninety-percent of worldwide goods is transported by the ocean shipping industry every year. The process, although full of resources, is usually slowed down by trade documentation, processing costs or even the errors in the physical movement of paperwork.IBM and Maersk, the global leader in transport and logistics, have come up with a new solution for all this: the use of blockchain technology to help transform the global, cross-border supply chain. IBM and Maersk, the global

How much do you enjoy travelling by train? Do you prefer this method of transportation or would you rather take a plane or another vehicle? To be sincere, I have always liked trains. I feel like they had the power to transport you back in time (at least the ones in Romania do). When I travel by train, I cannot help but think that this was one of the best ways of travelling in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Here in Romania, we have an almost ancient train that carries y

DevLoop is the first and only full-scale Hyperloop test track and was just revealed to the public. Development Loop or DevLoop will allow engineers to take testing of the cutting edge technology one step further. So far testing was conducted at the innovation campus in Los Angeles, but an outdoor testing facility will answer many questions. Hundreds of trials involving tests of levitation, propulsion, vacuum and control technologies will be conducted over the next few months,

On his 80th birthday, the Head of the Catholic Church got his first electric vehicle. According to mobilityhouse.com the Nissan LEAF was a gift from the German investor Jochen Wermuth who is a strong believer in sustainable investment. The Pope has addressed climate change issues before, in 2015 he called for action to promote a clean-energy future in his environmental encyclical Laudato Si’. The Vatican is committed to becoming the first zero-emission state. Currently, a res

Three European Cities made it to the final list for the European Mobility Week Award 2016. Lisbon (Portugal), Malmö (Sweden) and Skopje (former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) are the finalists in the competition that brings forth the most significant efforts of local authorities in promoting sustainable urban mobility. The winner of European Mobility Week Award 2016 will be announced on 20 March by Violeta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport in an award ceremony in Bru

The Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning Award focused on rewarding municipalities that succeed in coming up with a mobility solution that benefits both citizens and businesses while improving the quality of life. The top 3 finalist for this award are:  Brussels (Belgium) impressed the jury with its innovative logistics schemes; Budapest (Hungary) stood out for successfully integrating freight transport within the overall mobility strategy, and Stockholm (Sweden) was appreciat

Carbon emissions are known to provoke respiratory disease. It is a known fact that the pollution from diesel engines contributes to the greenhouse effect, the one everyone has been talking about from the last few decades. It is in our hands to do something to try to decrease the level of carbon emissions. One of the best ways would be to completely give up our cars, which is not possible, considering the increasing need for vehicles in all industries. So what has been left is

Spring time is the best time to get people on a bike and Warsaw is making the most of it. Wednesday marks the launch of the new season for the Venturilo bike sharing system – it brings with it new upgrades to the riding system for 2017. In addition to the 4.500 bicycles, authorities are releasing cargo bikes on the street of Poland’s capital city. The main argument for the new acquisition is that people need to carry bigger things around and authorities want to help them with

The partnership between Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) and RoadmapsForEnergy (R4E) took a step forward when Istanbul’s R4E official statement was signed last month in support of its Smart Transportation Vision for 2050. By signing the document, IMM’s Deputy Secretary General Mr. Muzaffer Hacımustafaoğlu declared his support for the R4E Project and stated that he will contribute to the smart city studies of the project team. The discussions revolved around the activi

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop One is one step closer to become a reality. Last weekend marked the announcement of the winners of the Hyperloop pod competition after they tested them on the mile-long SpaceX track in the Nevada desert. The highest overall score was received by The Delft Hyperloop Team, of Delft University in the Netherlands and the Technical University of Munich, Germany took away the award for the fastest pod. Third place was secured by MIT whose pod was judged by Spa