Photo: Audi
In the context of this year’s Smart City Expo World Congress (which has just closed its doors), Audi unveiled its plan to develop an urban strategy for the city of Somerville, a small city near Boston. Seen as a role model for “smart cities,” it’s part of the region that has the fastest growing economy in North America after Silicon Valley.
In the light of Dieselgate, Audi seems to be the first Volkswagen branch to concentrate on a significant change on US soil, or at least that’s the message the company is trying to spread. One in four Audis will be electric by 2025 - the German automaker said the other day. It’s about the same time it announced this agreement. The question here is whether or not this so-called memorandum of understanding will actually make the city sustainable.
In just a couple of words, the two parties will develop a new mobility strategy for the city. The focus is on exchanging know-how and testing new technologies. The two sides will also develop innovations that reduce the space requirement of automobiles in the city and increase the speed of traffic flow.
“The car will always be part of our mobility. At the same time, due to congestion and parking problems, today it shows us the limits to mobility. With technologies from Audi, we expect to be able to use the available urban space more efficiently. This enhances the quality of urban life,” said Mayor Josef A. Curtatone.
For starters, Audi will integrate some of its innovations such as traffic-light assistant in the new development plan the city is working on for the Union Square. In addition to networked infrastructure, the carmaker is also bringing automated parking to the project. Thanks to this strategy, the parking area required per car is reduced by approximately two square meters.
Another big project Audi will be part of is the Assembly Row neighborhood within the Assembly Square District. The real-estate developer in charge is building a mixed-use project just seven minutes from Boston. Residential buildings, a hotel, offices, retail spaces, entertainment, leisure facilities and parking are supported currently by a dedicated high-speed transit station linking the district to the urban core. Audi wants to integrate a self-parking cars system that would save the company millions of dollars by saving space and reducing costs.
In the light of Dieselgate, Audi seems to be the first Volkswagen branch to concentrate on a significant change on US soil, or at least that’s the message the company is trying to spread. One in four Audis will be electric by 2025 - the German automaker said the other day. It’s about the same time it announced this agreement. The question here is whether or not this so-called memorandum of understanding will actually make the city sustainable.
In just a couple of words, the two parties will develop a new mobility strategy for the city. The focus is on exchanging know-how and testing new technologies. The two sides will also develop innovations that reduce the space requirement of automobiles in the city and increase the speed of traffic flow.
“The car will always be part of our mobility. At the same time, due to congestion and parking problems, today it shows us the limits to mobility. With technologies from Audi, we expect to be able to use the available urban space more efficiently. This enhances the quality of urban life,” said Mayor Josef A. Curtatone.
For starters, Audi will integrate some of its innovations such as traffic-light assistant in the new development plan the city is working on for the Union Square. In addition to networked infrastructure, the carmaker is also bringing automated parking to the project. Thanks to this strategy, the parking area required per car is reduced by approximately two square meters.
Another big project Audi will be part of is the Assembly Row neighborhood within the Assembly Square District. The real-estate developer in charge is building a mixed-use project just seven minutes from Boston. Residential buildings, a hotel, offices, retail spaces, entertainment, leisure facilities and parking are supported currently by a dedicated high-speed transit station linking the district to the urban core. Audi wants to integrate a self-parking cars system that would save the company millions of dollars by saving space and reducing costs.
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