What would a futuristic city be like? Will it have hydrogen for fuel and autonomous vehicles? Will there be zero emissions? “Smart” homes and home robots? How will AI and artificial intelligence systems be used in domestic use?
We will find out very soon because Toyota announced that it will build a mini-city model with technologies of the future in early 2021. The company announced, at the CES 2020 international electronics show in Las Vegas, that this city will be a “laboratory” for implementing innovations, will be fully energy-sustainable, with buildings mainly made of wood, with a minimal “carbon footprint”, widespread use of photovoltaics on roofs, hydroponic crops, etc.
“We welcome everyone who wants to improve the way we live in the future, to take advantage of this unique research ecosystem and join us to create an increasingly better way of life and mobility for everyone”
With an initial population of 2,000 people, the “Woven City”, as Toyota has called it, will be created on the premises of a car factory that is expected to close.
The city’s design will be implemented by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. His company is designing high-profile projects, such as the Lego House in Denmark, Google’s offices in Silicon Valley, 2 World Trade Center in New York, etc.
Around the world, other cities have also implemented technological developments.
Oslo has redesigned its entire public transport network to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020.
Kalasatama, Finland, is basing its development on the Internet of Things, a network of smartly connected devices and machines.
Matera, a city built on the edge of a cliff in southern Italy, will be one of the first cities with 5G in Europe.
But where is Greece on the technology map? Greece is also following the digital transformation at a steady pace. The Guardian newspaper praised Trikala as “the most high-tech municipality in Greece” presenting the innovations that have been implemented, such as the driverless bus.
In Athens, the smart waste collection system has already been put into operation and it is expected that in the near future it will have smart street lighting, which will save significant resources, reduce CO2 emissions and light pollution.
However, thousands of questions arise when a leap is made from “the old” to “the new”. Societies have evolved at a high speed but at a steady pace. From the invention of electricity to the creation of autonomous cities, such as Toyota’s, there have been countless steps of development.
Today, cities operate at a fast pace with technology occupying a large percentage of their daily flow. However, no city operates completely autonomously nor does it have state-of-the-art systems. So here is the question… How will Toyota’s ultra-modern city communicate with the rest of the world, when the systems of these two “worlds” have an unbridgeable gap in system support?
No matter how autonomously it operates, in terms of its systems, all services, airports, stores, etc. are located in the “real” world, outside this technology ecosystem that Toyota will create. So how will two “worlds” with different systems be able to communicate and coexist when one cannot synchronize with the other?
Also, let’s not forget that every technological achievement also brings ethical dilemmas. By creating autonomous machines and robots, artificial intelligence is called upon to replace the human factor. However, a machine cannot replace human judgment. Is a car capable of making the right decision in the event of an accident?
Do humans overestimate technology in the short term and underestimate it in the long term, leaving them defenseless in the face of its achievements?
Toyota promises a city that will “marry” the physical with the digital environment. Anyway, we’ll see the results.
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