City council members in Belfast, Northern Ireland, are hoping to better understand how people use open spaces and parks by deploying sensors and cameras enhanced with artificial intelligence. The city is also using an app to incentivize residents to visit parks.
Drones have advanced from inspecting power lines to assisting in their construction. On a project in the Fargo, N.D., area, SkySkopes drones pulled a rope through a pulley that in turn was attached to electricity-transmitting wires.
Autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI is now testing a third-generation, Ford Fusion Hybrid-based self-driving car in downtown Detroit. The company is developing high-definition maps and a virtual driver system for Ford's autonomous vehicles with several "mechanical, sensing, compute and software upgrades that will take the company a step closer to production specification," Kirsten Korosec writes.
Gale International sued Posco Engineering & Construction in March after Posco sold Gale's majority stake in Songdo, a failed smart city, to two other companies. Although the city has 15,000 apartments and amenities like a Central Park-style park and cutting-edge energy-saving feature, the 17-year, $20 billion construction project has resulted in a city with an office vacancy rate of over 30%.
Scania has unveiled a self-driving urban vehicle called the NXT that can transition from delivering goods during the day to picking up trash at night. The electric concept vehicle features a modular design to meet a variety of demands.
IKEA's highly anticipated smart blinds that can connect to Apple's HomeKit, first set to launch in April, will now be available in August. IKEA said it delayed the release so it could update and improve the functionality of the blinds, which are expected to cost slightly more than $100.
