Skip to main content

San Diego and US Marine Corps partner on smart city development

The City of San Diego has partnered with the US Marines to develop smart cities technologies such as drones - or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) - and smart streetlights. The Californian city’s authorities will meet with the Marine Corps Installations Command (MCICOM) regularly to exchange technology ideas, review the status of ongoing projects and identify new areas of collaboration. The partners say they will also utilise working groups to review issues and develop actions plans relating to mobility,
March 11, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

The City of San Diego has partnered with the US Marines to develop smart cities technologies such as drones - or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) - and smart streetlights.

The Californian city’s authorities will meet with the Marine Corps Installations Command (MCICOM) regularly to exchange technology ideas, review the status of ongoing projects and identify new areas of collaboration. The partners say they will also utilise working groups to review issues and develop actions plans relating to mobility, security and public works.

San Diego wants to include the Marines in a pilot programme to advance the testing of UAS for the 324 US Department of Transportation.

Additionally, the partners will collaborate on the city’s ‘Get it Done’ app, which allows users to report problems and request improvements for neighbourhoods. It uses GPS information embedded within photos to automatically update addresses and locations.

According to the city’s government, San Diego has 3,200 smart streetlights which come with smart sensors that reduce energy costs by 60%.

In 2018, San Diego was chosen to participate in the Federal Aviation Administration’s UAS programme to test a range of advanced drone missions over the next few years.

UTC

Related Content

  • July 24, 2017
    Drones to be registered and users to sit safety tests under new government rules
    Drones will have to be registered and users will have to sit safety awareness tests under new rules to better regulate their growing use, the UK government has announced. Owners of drones weighing 250 grams and over will in future have to register details of their drones, either online or through apps, to improve accountability and encourage owners to act responsibly. The move follows safety research that concluded drones could damage the windscreens of helicopters. In addition, a new drone safety awareness
  • April 25, 2013
    Growth of smart parking initiatives
    New initiatives in smart parking have been announced in the US and Europe in recent months. Is the age of smarter parking finally with us? Jon Masters investigates. Smart parking comes to Manchester, reads the headline to a story posted on the UK city’s website towards the end of March this year. Sensors will be fixed to parking spaces to give drivers and authorities information on parking availability via mobile phone apps and other software, the story goes on to explain. Lower down the page, Manchester Ci
  • November 15, 2017
    Dutch strike public/private balance to introduce C-ITS services
    Connected-ITS applications are due to appear on a nation-wide scale this summer, through the Netherlands’ Talking Traffic Partnership – if all goes to plan. Jon Masters reports. The Netherlands’ Talking Traffic Partnership (TTP) looks almost too good to be true: an artificial market set up and supported by national, regional and local government to accelerate deployment of Connected ITS (C-ITS) applications. If it does have any serious flaws, these are going to become apparent quite soon, because the first
  • January 14, 2013
    New approach to data handling aids development of smarter cities
    David Crawford has been to the Irish capital to see a potent memorandum of understanding at work. An imaginative collaboration between the world’s largest IT company and one of Europe’s smaller capital cities is demonstrating a new approach to data handling that could have far reaching implications for urban public transport worldwide. A close working relationship between IBM and Dublin City Council (DCC) dates from 2010.