Giving Compass' Take:

• Here Technologies and Verizon are forming a partnership to enhance technology on vehicle and pedestrian safety in cities. 

• Will other cities be able to replicate this type of technology if this partnership becomes successful? How can donors help support this innovation?

• Here are seven trends that will influence smart cities in 2020. 


Here Technologies and Verizon have announced a partnership to leverage co-innovation by coupling Verizon's 5G network and edge computing platforms with Here's data and location technology and autonomous vehicle knowledge.

The partners will first collaborate on pedestrian and vehicle safety measures, such as collision avoidance and better visual positioning service (VPS) navigation and location identification. Future applications would leverage a mobile phone inside a car; the collision avoidance system, for example, would detect moving objects on the street and send alerts to the user through their phone.

Thus far, much of the talk around 5G has been how, when and where it will be deployed. But this collaboration advances the conversation to focus on what 5G can do when combined with other technologies.

"The level of automation, the level of safety can become smarter as you now get into areas where 5G is deployed, where it's having very advanced HD, high resolution maps that Here has in its system," Utheza said. "You're going to see expressions of advanced services that are going to be growing in coverage as the alignment and deployment of 5G goes on."

Early connected car technology has centered on the internal vehicle environment including automatic start or temperature control, but the next wave of advancements center on interactions with the external environment, Utheza said. Sensors installed throughout a city interact with those inside a car, and they are further enabled through 5G.

Read the full article about leveraging 5g for safety by Katie Pyzyk at Smart Cities Dive.