Smart street lights, self-trafficking cars, other perks of living in an IoT neighborhood

What would it be like to live in the city of tomorrow?

It’s  just a step away from the smart home of today which Northern Californians, who live close to the tech giants, are beginning to experience. Intelligent devices in your condominium monitor your air conditioning level, play your favorite music, narrate your e-novel, and remind you of the next day’s meeting — all at your voice command.

Innovators, engineers, and the pioneers of the Internet of Things will multiply that experience a dozen times by wiring the systems and processes and make your neighborhood a more convenient, more technologically advanced place to stay in. In the same way that a smart home’s gadgets monitor the owner’s movement and adjust to his behavior, streams of data and AI will analyze the behavior of that city’s residents and coordinate how the infrastructure can best respond to their needs.

Just take a look at what’s in store in IoT suburbs of the future:

  • Street lights that automatically brighten or dim, depending on the density of the clouds, the darkness of the night, the availability of other extraneous lights in the area, and the number of people walking that street
  • Self-driving cars that “coordinate” with each other by feeding data of their location, speed, destination, and number of passengers to each other, averting accidents and traffic gridlock.
  • Traffic sensors continually evaluate the flow of traffic and assess current patterns. They then act like online “policemen” to guide vehicles into less congested roads and stop hours of blockage before they happen.
  • Prioritized waste management will have garbage collectors pick up the trash and dirt where they are stockpiling the most, instead of sticking to the old patterns that relied on itinerary and location.
  • Noise controls will have smart sensors alerting policemen should loud parties, bar drinking, street brawling and other disruptive events disturb the peace and quiet in your neighborhood.

If you’d like a glimpse of the future, check out California Corporate Housing’s smart homes.