When it comes to earthquakes, every minute counts. Knowing that one has hit—and where—can make the difference between staying inside a building and getting crushed, and running out and staying alive. This kind of timely information can also be vital to first …Continue reading
Russia wants to cut itself off from the global internet. Here’s what that really means.
In the next two weeks, Russia is planning to attempt something no other country has tried before. It’s going to test whether it can disconnect from the rest of the world electronically while keeping the internet running for its citizens. This means …Continue reading
IKEA designs future autonomous cars that work as hotels, stores, and meeting rooms
Once cars can finally drive themselves, we’ll have more time to enjoy the journey and do other, much more interesting stuff instead. At least that’s the concept behind some of the designs below, developed by retail giant IKEA’s “future living lab,” SPACE10, …Continue reading
A smarter smart city
On Toronto’s waterfront, where the eastern part of the city meets Lake Ontario, is a patchwork of cement and dirt. It’s home to plumbing and electrical supply shops, parking lots, winter boat storage, and a hulking silo built in 1943 to store soybeans—a relic …Continue reading
Smart Cities Will Take Many Forms
In cities across the world, mayors, urban planners, citizens, and, increasingly, tech companies are using powerful new devices and programs to create smart cities, where transportation systems, energy grids, and public services can be monitored and manipulated in real time. We should …Continue reading
Cities Find Rewards in Cheap Technologies
Cities around the globe, whether rich or poor, are in the midst of a technology experiment. Urban planners are pulling data from inexpensive sensors mounted on traffic lights and park benches, and from mobile apps on citizens’ smartphones, to analyze how their …Continue reading