These exclusive satellite images show Saudi Arabia’s sci-fi megacity is well underway
In early 2021, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia announced The Line: a “civilizational revolution” that would house
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Smart cities
Smartphone data from drivers could help spot when bridges need urgent repairs
Smartphones could be used to monitor the safety of bridges much more quickly and cheaply than currently possible, providing engineers
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Bright LEDs could spell the end of dark skies
Late one evening in June of 2016, John Barentine stood alone at Mather Point, an iconic and rarely empty overlook
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A day in the life of a Chinese robotaxi driver
When Liu Yang started his current job, he found it hard to go back to driving his own car: “I
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Toronto wants to kill the smart city forever
In February, the city of Toronto announced plans for a new development along its waterfront. They read like a wish
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How bike parking pods could make US cities better for cyclists
In 2015, Brooklyn resident Shabazz Stuart regularly biked to his job at a local business improvement district. Then his bicycle
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We need smarter cities, not “smart cities”
The term “smart cities” originated as a marketing strategy for large IT vendors. It has now become synonymous with urban
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The smart city is a perpetually unrealized utopia
In 1959, in a short essay called “The Great Game to Come,” a little-known Dutch visual artist named Constant Nieuwenhuys
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The Download: Marseille’s surveillance fightback, and the endless AI sentience debate
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world
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