Why public cloud and edge computing are essential to the future of smart cities

Sometime in early 2019, the self-driving e.GO Mover bus will hit the streets in Germany. The electrically powered vehicle can transport up to 10 people, with a battery that lasts for 10 hours or so. And, it's powered by the cloud. The Microsoft Azure cloud platform, to be exact. While autonomous vehicles powered by the cloud are not new, e.GO Mover highlights how artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Thing (IoT), and edge computing projects are increasingly coming together to power smart cities. Amazon Web Services (AWS), for example, boasts customers including DriveAI, nuTonomy, TuSimple, and Mapillary--all of which work on autonomous vehicle systems.