COVID-19 to Accelerate Adoption of Technology-Enabled Smart Cities Resilience Approaches: Robotics, Digital Twins, and Autonomous Freight

City governments are adjusting to a new reality, with COVID-19 driving urban resilience and digital transformation strategy agendas, finds global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research. This is reflected in the deployment of a range of technologies for new use cases during the current emergency:

Drones – Communication and enforcement of social distancing rules; delivery of medical supplies
New types of surveillance – AI-based remote temperature sensing (Kogniz Health)
Autonomous freight – Autonomous last mile delivery (Beep, Navya, Nuro, Waymo, Postmates)
Digital Twins – Holistic, transversal, real-time visibility for resources, assets, and services (Siradel)
Real-time dashboards (City of Boston) and data sharing including the use of smartphone data crowdsourcing for location tracking

At the same time cities are reaping the benefits of a digital only lifestyle in the form of the sudden adoption of e-Government services, e-Health and teleconsultation, remote work, online education, and e-Commerce resulting in huge drops in traffic levels. These, in turn, are dramatically decreasing congestion, fatalities, and air pollution. Importantly, post-COVID-19 traffic levels are expected to only reach between 80% and 90% of the pre-COVID-19 levels, as digital lifestyles take hold more permanently, driven by both public and private initiatives and incentives. The result will have lasting positive effects on the environment.

These findings are from ABI Research’s Smart Cities and Smart Spaces Quarterly Update report. This report is part of the company’s Smart Cities and Smart Spaces research service, which includes research, data, and analyst insights.

ABI Research provides strategic guidance to visionaries, delivering actionable intelligence on the transformative technologies that are dramatically reshaping industries, economies, and workforces across the world. ABI Research's global team of analysts publish groundbreaking studies often years ahead of other technology advisory firms, empowering our clients to stay ahead of their markets and their competitors.

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