The city of Las Vegas is getting smarter. Over the past few years, the city has added devices such as a motion-detecting camera, LiDar scanner, infrared sensor, weather probe, and sound detector variously measure pedestrian and traffic counts, air quality, odd noises, and vehicles turning in the wrong direction at the intersection in front of City Hall, writes Laura Bliss for CityLab. But Vegas is doing their smart city a little differently than others around the country.
Bliss explains:
What’s different in Las Vegas is that, here, testing these technologies is seen as an end in itself. There isn’t an overarching “smart cities” master plan rationalizing these gadgets out yet. Las Vegas is launching as many pilot programs as it can, in order to a) get its hands dirty and b) try to raise its brand as a place that understands digital devices beyond slot machines.
“It’s not just about the technology,” Michael Sherwood, the city’s director of IT, told me over the phone this week. “It’s about letting companies know that Las Vegas is more than entertainment.”
In a metro area where 44 percent of jobs are tied to the fluctuating fortunes of the gaming and tourism industry, leaders hope their pilot recruitment efforts will eventually lead to more positions in new employment sectors.
Read more at CityLab.
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