Google Wants to turn Detroit into a "smart city" ?

[getmoore]

Very interesting.The link to the full report is at the end of the article.
http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/arch...o-a-smart-city

[southen]

I was talking to someone a little over a month ago who was talking about this and how it WOULD be implemented in Detroit. They also implied that Google has purchased land within the city and would be doing a test site for this type of technology. I don't know how reliable the info is on this, but everything I was told was mentioned in the article. I would love to see this implemented and it would be nice to see them choose downtown Detroit as a testing ground for much of this, making it that much more appealing for residents and businesses to move down.

[Lowell]

I welcome anybody who wants to do just about anything but recharging kiosks and a free broadband wifi seems, well, outdated already. From my own experience, and owning a downtown internet business, this is nice but not needed. Battery life is rarely an issue anymore and recharging can be done in numerous easy ways. The LTE speeds I get on my devices are more than adequate for 95% of my tasks and cellular bandwidth is cheap enough now that I prefer to avoid frequently insecure 'free' wifi access points. These factors -- cheap broadband, longer-lasting batteries -- will only get better and such kiosks will quickly become like telephone booths of yore.

In the article from which the MetroTimes article derived, it mentions what I suspect is the true intent of Google, linkage to and creation of an environment for driverless cars. The data and bandwidth speeds required to monitor and control those efforts will be immense and may be the secondary, if not primary function of the kiosks. Making some of that free to passerby's could be little more than goodwill PR to overcome resistance to driverless vehicles that is certain to rise.

[SammyS]

Lowell,

I don't notice the resistance to autonomous vehicles other than the perception of safety. This will soon pass as the market logs more hours and confidence in this technology prevails....after all, I can't think of many ways a human outdoes a machine. But if this is Google's true intent, I'd just hope they stop being slimy about it but rather promote it as a "gift to Detroit". Sounds naïve I know but at least it makes for more PR sense than trying to deceive the public.

PS. What does this mean for Detroit's own Rocket Fiber?

[MizMotown]

The hypothetical city would also include augmented reality technology, allowing advertisers to create unique billboard ads for the individual.

BUY, BUY, CONSUME, CONSUME. You can't be happy unless you BUY! bleh.

[bibs]

Lowell,

I don't notice the resistance to autonomous vehicles other than the perception of safety. This will soon pass as the market logs more hours and confidence in this technology prevails....after all, I can't think of many ways a human outdoes a machine. But if this is Google's true intent, I'd just hope they stop being slimy about it but rather promote it as a "gift to Detroit". Sounds naïve I know but at least it makes for more PR sense than trying to deceive the public.

PS. What does this mean for Detroit's own Rocket Fiber?

Rocket Fiber is probably one of the main reasons that Google is considering Detroit. Since the challenging task of running fiber is in the process of being done or is already completed, Google can patch into that fiber network and buy the bandwidth for the project.

[bibs]

The hypothetical city would also include augmented reality technology, allowing advertisers to create unique billboard ads for the individual.

BUY, BUY, CONSUME, CONSUME. You can't be happy unless you BUY! bleh.

Have you seen the movie; "They Live"? You have to watch if you haven't because it's about subliminal messages.

[Lowell]

Rocket Fiber is probably one of the main reasons that Google is considering Detroit. Since the challenging task of running fiber is in the process of being done or is already completed, Google can patch into that fiber network and buy the bandwidth for the project.

Wondering when Rocket Fiber is taking off because we have been on the waiting list forever.

[detroitsgwenivere]

^^Me too, and several of my Corktown neighbors are waiting for access to Rocket Fiber, like finger tapping on the desk sort of waiting. May I post for the 500th time how much I cannot stand Comcast or ATT?

[G-DDT]

Have you seen the movie; "They Live"? You have to watch if you haven't because it's about subliminal messages.

Check out "Looker" with Albert Finney [[if you can find it)by Michael Crichton [[the same man who gave us "Terminal Man" and some stupid films about dinosaurs-kind of wasn't paying attention to any of those CGI lizards.). It's a hokey under-the-radar 80's Sci-fi film, but it involves a company using CGI to mesmerize it's consumers, that and there is also a hypno-gun that causes black-outs in folks.

By the way, not everything Wilson Bryan Key said was stupid [[okay, so he got nutty about Ritz crackers and Vietnam pictures, but pretty much everything else was a lock). Subliminal messaging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_stimuli#Consumption_and_television at a most base level can work at the most minute fraction of a second. It can sway folks on an issue they don't have enough information on or lack full conviction on.

One way is to create crisis and confusion in a viewer. Mix sex and death or sexual ambiguity [[hire convincing transsexuals to play moms in coupon ads) and folks will tend to latch on the only structure that seems positive and absolute [[the "buy this" part) while their unconscious mind is gridlocked.

I have some copies of the original "Little Mermaid" VHS cover with the "Phallus Palace" in the background. it is there, it is stark. Also, it is rare, because it got pulled [[no pun intended) and replaced with many others with different artwork. Naughty artists loved sticking imagery [[from Dali to guys much earlier) that was sexual, blasphemous [[Christ with an erection on the cross), or even slightly subversive to a figurehead being depicted [[an elongated skull or depicting the portrait of a noble man with his hand in his pocket suggests they are hiding something-every little bit can induce a "nostril shot" effect). When I started putting such items in my paintings and such at Graphic Design courses, I was being told I was talented and would have a gift in advertising; I'm glad I said "Fug' that!".

Also, I have old video tape recordings prior to 1997. Rapid white screen flashes used as segues in commercial breaks or news reports were absent, until a certain stupid Spielberg/Sonnenfeld/Smith/Jones film that featured flashing as a mind-control appeared. All recordings afterwards had them. Put one in as a segue into a news item about a crime and you will be convinced that the "person of interest" [[what happened to "suspect"?) with an unflattering mug shot is "clearly guilty"-you just "feel it".

[G-DDT]

If a huge dominating, company like Google wants to make us "smart", it can feel free to make as many traceable and heavily monitored donations to our ailing school system as it can.

[G-DDT]

The hypothetical city would also include augmented reality technology, allowing advertisers to create unique billboard ads for the individual.

BUY, BUY, CONSUME, CONSUME. You can't be happy unless you BUY! bleh.

Again, I don't want to live in an imposing world that has advertising bombarding my eyes like in "Minority Report" or beaming them into my sleep like Futurama. Yet, I guess in the name of "freedom", the corporate apologist conservatives will allow said bloated corporations the unregulated ability to dominate and control [[control being the "holy grail" of all of mankind's endeavors in history) us in any manner possible.

[kathy2trips]

Make no mistake, it's a gift to THEMSELVES. Amazing how many outsiders want to come in to "fix" Detroit as if they know best.

Are we getting a percentage of their profits for submitting ourselves and our city to being their guinea pigs? What if it's a bust? Who has to clean it up, then? Can't they just try in in California? The whole state is just one big social experiment anyway.

This so smacks of George Orwell-type social engineering by a bunch of know-it-all tech wonks. I'm very nervous about this, and not convinced in the least.

[Dbest]

We know there were plenty of skeptics regarding the early auto industry too. Point being, if the end game is Google building a refined network for autonomous vehicles then fantastic.

It's not like the region hasn't been angling for this, they had Belle Isle decked out for this concept and running these cars. I will actually give Snyder some credit if Detroit ends up a test pilot. Why not have these things testing in the backyards of where they are potentially developed? Michigan and California...

It's simply a matter of getting them from the automakers test tracks to the mean streets of Detroit. Only time will tell, but heres to hoping Detroit factors in on this.