After talking about future city with automatic cars, the first step is to create a new structure (or pattern) for Xiong’an new area, which could show how smart vehicles will shape our city.
Superblock is a good example to talk about automatic cars. Automatic cars could cut the number of necessary cars while superblock tried to create a car-free area. The key point is that the concept of superblock didn’t mention any new technologies. It will help us to image a high-tech future city.
The problem what modern city face is walking space divided by city road. So vehicles are not allowed to enter the superblock. Even necessary cars have to keep a low speed.
Superblock could benefit a city a lot. But the most important reason is that a car-free city is possible. With public transport, it is possible to get everywhere without private cars, which mean it is not necessary to drive into a superblock.
However, there is still some disagreement. Some residents believe that it is only benefit the central part of a superblock. And some wondered if 30% road of a city can afford 100% cars. Another question is if superblock will work with out regular blocks.
In conclusion, Superblock is a advanced concept. But we have no idea if it is the answer for modern city.
[Automatic Cars in Xiong’an New Area]
In fact, there are many companies experimenting with unmanned cars in xiong’an, but Baidu is one of the largest. Baidu’s Apollo has successfully built a smart car on the road.
Apollo released a white book about smart traveling, which show its plan about transport in the future. Not only they built smart cars, but also tried to build a system for smart city.
[To Create New Structure]
[Diagram of future city]