Autonomous vehicles: the converging factor for private and public actors in smart cities

Autonomous vehicles are one of the key pillars of smart city projects. The mobility concept of smart cities is changing the dynamic between private and public actors in these projects. The new German draft bill on autonomous driving demonstrates just how closely autonomous driving and the mobility concept of smart cities are intertwined. The common denominator of all the definitions of'smart cities' is that technology and data are used to fundamentally affect the lives of the inhabitants. Thus, the large amount of collected data is essentially made centrally available to organise the city's infrastructure and services.