Urban Tech News Roundup
Construction Tech:
- Fundrise allows millennials to crowdfund new constructions while combatting urban housing crisis. FastCo
- MUST READ: 3D printing will be commonplace in construction in the next decade, making the unthinkable in design possible. "The heart of what makes 3D printing truly revolutionary: not merely the giddy futurism of conjuring anything you please out of thin air, but the fact that it liberates design." Ozy Related: An MIT robot can 3D print a home in just 14 hours.
- GM testing smart road technology in nation's first connected construction zone, using QR codes and more to connect vehicles with infrastructure. Detroit News
- Morphosis Architects designs net zero building for Cornell Tech campus. ArchDaily
WATCH: AWS’ John Stephenson talks commitment to helping governments build smart cities in the cloud
Transportation and Mobility:
- When it comes to rogue bike shares, all is not what it seems. The pricing schemes do are not as progressive as bikes shares launched in partnership with cities. CityLab
- Lyft promotes climate-friendly agenda (CityLab), moving forward as a socially conscious brand while Uber continues to struggle after the loss of its CEO. NY Times
- The startup Remix is helping governments visualize new transit routes. FastCo
- Can navigation apps that show the true costs of trips help reduce congestion? Sidewalk Labs
- The Boring Company has secured permits for underground tunnels. More
- First look at Vahana’s vertical autonomous flying taxi. Mashable Plus, what Tesla's autopilot is really like, and why cars won't be fully driver-less anytime soon. Business Insider
- Blockchain could potentially make the shared mobility industry frictionless and even entirely eliminate the role of middleman platforms. FastCo
- Construction plans for Google's San Jose campus rethink car-centric campus model by positioning space as transit hub in move to reduce congestion in Silicon Valley. Mercury News
Urban Planning:
- MUST READ: Smart cities aren’t all rainbows and butterflies. Forbes Similar, a smart city doesn’t just appear in thin air. What does it take to create a smart city? HuffPost
- Excess space will prime us for a golden age of landscape architecture. CityLab
- A closer look at how satellite data can be used to guide government decisions. FastCo
- Bosch builds $1B facility to build chips for smart city tech. TechCrunch
- Resilient Melbourne Citysmart Challenge proves reducing congestion can also be socially fulfilling. The Guardian
- Accenture & Microsoft team up to build blockchain global ID system. Fortune
- A deep dive into trends shaping the real estate tech industry. CB Insights
Pollution and Climate Change:
- Can we really solve energy problems if we live in a technologically driven world? Bloomberg
- Public-private partnerships are not enough to combat the nation’s infrastructure needs or climate change. Bloomberg We can't fight climate change without fighting cars, but we can change the way we build to fight cars. CityLab
- Progressive policy, not coal, necessary to move energy grid forward. FastCo But, solar and wind looks like it’s here to stay. FastCo And the world's largest asset manager says coal is dead and we've hit peak oil; now BlackRock is investing in electric cars and renewables. More
- Stephen Hawking posits the future of humanity lies in other planets amidst "most serious and wrong" decisions about climate change by Trump administration. Washington Post
- As protestors organize "Day of Rage" in response to the Grenfell Tower Fire (The Guardian), the mayor of London vows to make entire transport system emission-free by 2050. TechCrunch
- The reality of fighting climate change is that there isn't a correct strategy. CityLab