SMART Community Council has hosted SMART Community Exchanges across the U.S. and Europe during the past decade, engaging executives, investors, innovators and advisors in hot spots of technology innovation.

Strong technology cooperation and the initiative to make communities smarter get support on both sides of the Atlantic. Leaders face the same challenges and see partnership opportunities to test, prove, commercialize and implement SMART solutions.

The 10th Annual SMART Community Exchange brings together SMART leaders, entrepreneurs, technologists, innovators and investors. The event will take place on Monday, October 30, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Curiosity Lab in Peachtree Corners.

The focus is on SMART-R (SMART + Resilient) Infrastructure, energy, mobility, transportation, frontier technologies, safety and security, health and wellness, education, finance and more.

Participants include delegates from enterprises and organizations, higher education institutions, federal, state, and local governments, economic development, industry, manufacturers, labor organizations and workforce development.

“There is so much potential for companies to grow business through strategic partnerships in the hot spots of tech innovation across the United States. Many of these ‘hot spots’ are SMART Communities, such as Peachtree Corners, Georgia, and the Curiosity Lab, co-host of the SMART Community Exchange 2023,” said Tana Torrano, co-founder of the SMART Community Exchange.

Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners is a 5G-enabled intelligent mobility and smart city living laboratory near Atlanta.

Designed as a proving ground for IoT, mobility and smart city emerging technologies, the lab’s centerpiece is a three-mile public autonomous vehicle roadway leveraging cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technologies.

The ecosystem’s infrastructure includes intelligent traffic cameras and signals, smart streetlights, the country’s first “IoT Central Control Room” implemented in a city and a 25,000-square-foot innovation center.

The Curiosity Lab, owned and operated by the City of Peachtree Corners, is one of North America’s only real-world testing environments.

SMART technology broadens access to new opportunities and markets in tech-intensive economies and benefits communities, businesses, governments and citizens on both sides of the Atlantic.

“US-EU cooperation matters today more than ever. We share the same values and commitment to serve as a catalyst for joint innovation. … Together, we are stronger to face today’s challenges and reap the benefits in a fast-changing world where technology plays a critical role,” stated Minna LeVine, Chair of the SMART Community Council.

Interested in attending? Register here! Registration is $97 per person and includes lunch, programming, VIP networking and a tour of Curiosity Lab.

The City of Peachtree Corners announced a partnership with Intelligent Traffic Control Ltd (ITC), an Israeli startup that provides a software solution for existing traffic infrastructure.

ITC’s smart solution aims to improve travel experiences by measuring traffic to predict and mitigate congestion before it occurs.

ITC will partner with Curiosity Lab to launch this solution for the first time in the United States. The company plans to deploy the solution in select Peachtree Corners traffic intersections for demonstrations and testing. 

ITC’s software connects to existing traffic cameras and uses computer vision analysis to identify all road objects and collect data, including speed, acceleration, traffic flow, distance, pedestrian activity and more. 

ITC’s software also complies with privacy regulations by hiding license plates and faces. 

Using machine learning models, data is then analyzed to create a traffic model that highlights patterns of each intersection or corridor. This information is connected across a grid of intersections to create one holistic image. 

ITC is also predicting traffic patterns based on historic data, enabling cities to have more control over traffic congestion. 

“With our solution already deployed across Israel, in Australia and other countries worldwide, Curiosity Lab will serve as a real-world playground for us to continue to develop our solution and to officially launch in the U.S. with an official office in the Innovation Center,” said Aharon Brauner, ITC Co-Founder and CEO. 

“That ecosystem is the perfect opportunity for us to demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution with consistent mixed traffic, public transit and pedestrian activity along the corridor.”

In addition to uncovering patterns, ITC’s solution can create traffic simulations across intersections and corridors where the software is deployed. 

Traffic controllers and city managers will be able to visualize and simulate countless theoretical traffic scenarios for the software to solve.

ITC’s software can also manage traffic based on a city’s specific goals, whether limiting carbon emissions and improving sustainability or providing general traffic management, prioritizing pedestrians or public transit and more.

“Our software not only learns and adapts traffic signals and patterns in real-time, but also has the capability to manage traffic to prioritize certain categories of road users,” said Dvir Kenig, ITC Co-Founder and CTO. 

“This allows cities to manage each intersection or corridor differently based on the type of traffic they are seeing and/or time of day,” he added.

“According to recent studies, more than 40% of traffic accidents occur in intersections, and congestion accounts for 25% of car greenhouse gas emissions – with the average driver spending three days per year stuck in traffic,” said Brandon Branham, Curiosity Lab Executive Director. 

“We will be able to manage intersections in real-time and can easily download a traffic report and adapt traffic signal patterns remotely, which is a huge advantage for city managers when there are major wrecks, community events and sudden surges in traffic,” he explained.

Peachtree Corners and Audi of America announced a collaboration to advance cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) practical deployment pathways as part of the city’s Curiosity Lab ecosystem.

Both Audi and Peachtree Corners see this as an opportune time to further deployment of C-V2X applications that allow vehicles to communicate with city-owned streets, traffic signals, crosswalk signals and other infrastructure, as well as with vulnerable road users (VRUs). 

Audi has recently received a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission to deploy this advanced technology, both intend to fine-tune strategies to expand connectivity on public roadways. 

“We are honored to have been selected by Audi to define how automakers and cities can together unlock the future in the world’s most unique smart city environment, which includes the first-ever full C-V2X system to be implemented by a U.S. city,” said City Manager Brian Johnson. 

“Our first official global vehicle manufacturer collaboration will be able to leverage our ‘city street of the future,’ which brings together the C-V2X vision in an unprecedented manner,” said Johnson. “This includes a top developer like Spoke, which is addressing the vulnerable road user part of the equation to make it safer for users such as cyclists.” 

Audi’s collaborations

Audi has been working with various private and public partners since 2020 to improve C-V2X technologies and protect vulnerable road users. The automaker has worked on initial deployments with public authorities to address the safety of construction workers when vehicles approach a construction zone. 

In addition, Audi has collaborated with various companies to develop C-V2X technologies to connect cars with school buses to improve the safety of children and to alert drivers of active school zones. 

One of these companies is Spoke, a startup aiming to transform roadway safety and rider connectivity by delivering the first-ever connected IoT ecosystem for VRUs. Its solutions equip bicycles and other VRUs with their VRU2X technology, and the company is continuing to expand its C-V2X solutions with Curiosity Lab. 

“Peachtree Corners’ smart city leadership makes it the perfect environment for us to confirm how the public sector and private sector can work together for the safety and other advantages that ready-to-deploy C-V2X technology can deliver,” said Brad Stertz, Director, Audi Government Affairs. 

“With one of the most complete smart city ecosystems anywhere, this environment will enable us to demonstrate the latest technology Audi has to offer for improved ultra-reliable and low-latency communications, leading to enhanced connectivity, increased safety and a better overall experience for the driver,” said Stertz.

For more information, contact Peachtree@GoDRIVEN360.com.