Connected Cali: Open Data Opens Doors in LA
Connected Cali: Open Data Opens Doors in LA
Necessity is the mother of invention. The natural topography of Los Angeles and its sprawling suburbs present serious challenges in terms of mobility, air quality and sustainability. Together they are spawning clusters of innovation around connectivity in both the physical and virtual sense, from congested roads to the information superhighway.
Necessity
LA is almost as famous for traffic as it is for Hollywood and the smog it generates hangs over the city, trapped in on three sides by glorious mountains and pushed in-land by sea breeze from the coast on the other. Droughts are persistent in the State and it suffers near perpetual energy crises that are virtually unheard of elsewhere in the developed world.
The Invention
The answer, for the city of LA, has been to leverage open data to unleash city-wide mobility and a budding smart city attracting recognition internationally. Los Angeles has been awarded the prize for smartest city in the US three years running, in large part because of its data sharing initiatives related to everything from housing to micro-mobility programs.
Think dockless scooters and light transportation and you’re into native LA territory. It is on micro-mobility schemes that LA is really leading the pack and the city has created a framework for realtime shared digital data to connect them. The City of Los Angeles is a founding member of the Open Mobility Foundation – a project borne out of the LA Department for Transportation’s Mobile Data Specifications.
The Future
Here LA is laying the groundwork for “autonomous cars, drones and whatever else the future holds.” Flexible and responsive mobility programs, especially those that support autonomous vehicles will depend on high quality connectivity in densely populated (and connected) areas. The answer to that is 5G.
Los Angeles will be one of the first cities in the US connected to 5G networks, named in the first rollouts planned by Sprint and Verizon. AT&T and the City of LA are also openly exploring a public private partnership to deliver comprehensive city-wide smart city projects.
This brings LA squarely into the era of Intelligent Connectivity, where technologies like 5G, artificial intelligence and the internet of things coalesce to unlock the gridlock, improve resource intensity and reduce the impact and necessity of travel.
Intelligent Connectivity in LA
LA represents the ideal breeding ground for the connected future. It has all the necessity for change, the municipal support to achieve it and is home to one of the most inventive and imaginative populations in the world. That is why we are so excited about bringing technology leaders from around the world and around the US to talk about our connected future.
4YFN, as always, will be bringing a startup twist to the proceedings with startups that promise a brighter, smarter future. Among them is Korean startup AU Sensor that has created a wave radar sensor paired with deep learning that can count people in cars, monitor traffic and detect the velocity and position of cars.
Japanese startup Obniz will also be exhibiting its cloud based system that allows users to create IoT networks within minutes. They’ll be joined on the exhibition floor by RECO, another Korean startup specializing in integrated waste management. The company provides transparent data and connectivity through proprietary blockchain technology and services to improve efficiency in the waste chain.
These are just a few of the smart innovations that will be on display on the showfloor at 4YFN. On stage we will be talking about New Investment Opportunities in 5G on Tuesday, 22 October and MWC LA will be bursting at the seams with 5G content.
Want to see LA lead the world? Come to 4YFN this month! https://www.4yfn.com
