China building chilling '15-minute smart city' with facial recognition cameras on lampposts
Located around 60 miles south of China's capital Beijing is a brand new high-tech smart city called Xiongan where it's hoped around four million people will live in the future
China is building a brand new high-tech smart city which features driverless buses, facial recognition cameras on every lamppost and digital roads.
Hundreds of thousands of people have already moved into the “15-minute city” Xiongan, located about 60 miles south of China's capital Beijing. It's expected four million people will eventually move into the area, which has partly been build because of congestion and pollution concerns in Beijing,
The driverless buses, which are currently undergoing trials, are said to improve the efficiency of the transportation network. The vehicles can not only recognize traffic lights and road signs but also reduce speed or stop in case of obstacles.
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The smart electric buses have a detection range of almost 250 metres and can drive for up to 200km before needing to be charged. Another feature of the city is the facial recognition lampposts.
According to ChinaDaily, the city is home to more than 200 km of digital roads, with sensors on over 7,000 lampposts monitoring traffic to help reduce congestion and support autonomous driving. Every lamppost will also be equipped with facial recognition cameras, reports Ben Swann, with every entrance and exit reportedly having checkpoints placed on them.
Duanfang Lu, an urban design professor, told Al Jazeera: "Xiongan is gathering a lot of best talents from different disciplines from different parts of the country to design this new solution for the whole country." She added: "A lot of people in major cities decided not to have children because it is too hard for their future children to get into good schools. So Xiongan is trying to overcome problems like this so it has been a very child-focused urban design."
Xiongan has been described as a "15-minute city", which essentially means that it has been designed so everything is accessible within a 15-minute walk, no matter where a person lives in the city. UK architect Chapman Taylor, who devised a masterplan for the 27,200-hectare site, explain on their website: "We did some research based on Chinese people’s demands.
"Theoretically, daily needs are accessible within your 5-minute living circle. Your weekly needs would be 10 minutes away and the 15-minute facilities are the things you need occasionally, say, monthly or seasonally. It’s a very logical way to design a city. We’ve also evaluated green transportation options, such as building up public transport + bike + walking modes and we estimate that the proportion of green transport trips will reach 90 per cent."
According to the website, the urban project "aims to create a high-quality, efficient and smart city environment which encourages equality and sustainability". It's digital and smart way of living could be implemented in other cities if Xiongan proves to be a success.
"In Xiong’An, we will strive to reduce the impact of uncertainty. We recommend that the city is run on Smart City principles; it’s part of our thinking and would help the strategic management of the city," Chapman Taylor say.
"It’s quite hard to apply in macro terms, but on a more micro level it’s related to smart mobility, healthcare, security, energy, waste and water. Such as, the transportation system would be fully ‘smart’ and able to react to blocks in traffic, reset signals and redirect the flow of traffic accordingly, without the need for human intervention.
"Taking it even further, for example in healthcare terms, you could look at prescriptions being automatically tailored to people’s requirements, such as dosage being automatically administered in the correct proportions based on someone’s height and weight."
While some have praised the idea of building a smart city, others have concerns around privacy and how information is collected. "Smart cities are, above all, surveillance cities that enable close monitoring and management of large populations," Vincent Mosco, a smart city expert told USNews.
"As a leader in smart city systems, China is subjecting its citizens to greater routine surveillance than citizens have experienced at any time in history. Sensors are now embedded throughout the urban infrastructure, in everyday home appliances, and in the devices citizens carry. These collect data 24/7 with or without the awareness and approval of citizens."
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