Google and LG Electronics are reportedly working together in a partnership aimed at developing and providing hardware and software technologies to support upcoming smart city development projects. Apparently, these projects would utilize information and communication technologies for increasing the efficiency of urban services.
The U.S. technology giant had announced the details of the partnership at the first Google Cloud Summit held in Seoul recently. The two companies would work with investors and real estate developers to build smart towns that are powered by the internet of things, artificial intelligence and big data analytics.
Vice president of IoT and entrepreneur-in-residence at Google, Rhee In-jong had stated during the Summit that Google and LG will provide solutions which contribute towards the smart feature in new buildings built in smart towns. For example, the planned solutions for smart cities could monitor air quality, temperature and lighting levels.
Based on accumulated data, the solutions will also recommend an energy consumption model that is more cost efficient. Mr. Rhee said complex procedures like these would smoothly run on one platform. The smart cities envisioned by LG and Google consist of housing clusters, commercial towns, offices, businesses complexes and hotels that are being planned by investors and real estate developers today.
As partners in developing smart city solutions, LG would be responsible for building devices compatible with IoT, while Google would offer back-end technology capabilities, including AI, cloud and machine learning required for storing, processing and analyzing data gathered via connected objects.
Mr. Rhee did not inform about specific smart city projects or potential construction sites under consideration and said that for now, the two firms are still in the process of developing different technologies. The companies will need to carefully consider which sites to provide products for as they continue to develop smart city technologies, he had mentioned.
Google is open to forming new partnerships with smart city-related businesses in Korea and abroad, Mr. Rhee confirmed when asked about the possibility of future collaborations with local companies in Korea other than LG.
