Episode Transcript
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:00:06 Welcome to Smart in the City, the BABLE Podcast where we bring together top actors in the smart city arena, sparking dialogues and interactions around the stakeholders and themes most prevalent for today's citizens and tomorrow's generations.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:00:21 I am your host, Tamlyn Shimizu, and I hope you'll enjoy this episode and gain knowledge and connections to accelerate the change for a better urban life.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:00:31 Smart in the City is brought to you by BABLE Smart Cities. We enable processes from research and strategy development to co-creation and implementation. To learn more about us, please visit the BABLE platform at bable-smartcities.eu.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:00:46 So today I am sitting in Stuttgart, Germany at the Urban Future Conference, and we have some really great episodes lined up for you with the speakers and others. So big thank you, first of all, to urban future to having us as media partners and forgiving us this opportunity to speak to so many thought leaders on interesting topics. Uh, the main topic for today is around iot and realtime presence and what that means for cities today. So an expert in the field with me today is Moshe Gazit. He's the director of business development at the IoT startup Thinkz. Welcome.
Moshe Gazit 00:01:18 Thank you. Thank you tumbling. Nice to be here. Yeah,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:01:21 Lovely to have you. Yeah. Even though it's very hot, I just might add
Moshe Gazit 00:01:24 It's boiling. I know. Yeah. <laugh>,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:01:25 It's a heat wave in Stuttgart right now, <laugh>. So, um, bear with us, uh, a little bit. We're, we're, um, just sweating it out in this sauna right now. But, um, I also want to mention before we get started that this episode is in collaboration with things and we have just launched a joint contest where things is promising to give away a free cutting edge, real-time city map to the lucky city or region winner. Um, more information about this is linked in the show notes. Um, so we're gonna now talk about IOT and everything, but don't miss the chance on this contest.
Moshe Gazit 00:01:56 Absolutely. It's very exciting. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:01:58 Yeah. Um, and now we're going to learn a little bit more about iot. I'm actually really interested to also learn from you, cuz of course, I'm not an iot expert, so, um, I, I'm really curious to hear what you have to say. But before we get started, um, we're gonna do a little warmup. I've been saying warmup, um, but it's really a cool down right now. We don't need any more heat in here, <laugh>. Um, but, uh, the, the teaser question I have for you today is, what is one thing people get wrong about iot?
Moshe Gazit 00:02:27 Um, I, I, I think that the internet of things, you know, people don't know exactly what it is. And, uh, it is about, uh, actually, um, uh, many, many different, uh, many, many different objects, uh, having information, actually broadcasting it somewhere. Okay. So there is informa, there is data coming of different, uh, uh, different, um, uh, objects. It could be, uh, your, um, washing machine at home, but this is not what we do. <laugh> <laugh>,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:02:55 You're not a a washing machine expert?
Moshe Gazit 00:02:57 No, no, no, I'm not. No, not today. <laugh> and, uh, um, but it can come from many, many different places. So, uh, uh, it's IOTs that are on different trucks in the city that are on bikes that you take for mobility, uh, in different cars. Um, and actually we are talking about by 2030 to have about 60 billion IOTs around the world. Um, so IOTs are very necessary, apparently, because everybody's putting them right, very necessary to, um, be able to transmit the data needed from the object. Uh, so this is about that. Yeah. Yeah.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:03:34 Yeah. Really good intro into it. Um, can you tell me a little bit about your background? How did you get interested in these topics?
Moshe Gazit 00:03:40 Right. So, um, I I, it wasn't me actually, I joined, uh, and, uh, uh, some very, very smart people <laugh>, uh, back then in, in Israel. They were talking about what would be the next thing, you know, that that, um, will make sense for people to have as, uh, as information. And, uh, they realize that, uh, the IOTs in the world are increasing, the, the number is increasing, um, exponentially. Um, and it's very interesting to take that and make different use cases different, uh, information that will actually get to people's hands. Um, and, uh, um, and it's quite, it's quite new, uh, to do that because, um, it was used in, in different companies by cities to control and to manage and stuff like that. But there's so much that we can do more with that. And this is the point, um, personally, I'm, I'm fascinated by that because the use cases that can be created are on one hand cool, you know, <laugh>. Yeah. But cool is not, is is is the right word, because you can do so much with it. It's so necessary. Yeah. It's so useful. Um, so that why i, I call it cool, although I'm not the generation that, that calls it cool <laugh>, um, uh, and, uh, there is so much to the imagination to come into that and make great stuff out of it. So that's, that's the fascination about it. Yeah.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:05:01 Yeah. Yeah. And maybe, um, okay, so Thinkz is not dealing with, uh, washing machines, but what do you do?
Moshe Gazit 00:05:08 So we don't, we don't deal with the hardware. We don't even deal with the iot itself. I mean, you know, it's put there by, by, by, by different companies, et cetera. But what we do, we created a platform that can transform data that is transmitted by IOTs into, uh, uh, useful information. Okay. Um, and, uh, this information, I, I will give a few, uh, you know, a few, uh, uh, um, uh, examples that, that were done. But, but this information can be actually used in a very different way than it actually was intended to by the iot. To give you 1, 1, 1 little example, uh, that we did, and I think it's a very interesting, uh, use case. Um, IOTs, uh, uh, we were talking, sorry, we were talking to, uh, we were talking to, uh, a, a, a very nice partner, a gentleman at, uh, at, uh, the, uh, city of Helsinki.
Moshe Gazit 00:06:00 Okay. And, uh, we were talking about collaboration and what can we do together? He said, and he said, oh, this morning it was horrible because it took me more than an hour to get to work and normally takes me 20 minutes. I said, why? What happened because of this snow? Yeah. It was ki around, uh, I think November or, or or December because of the snow. And we were stuck behind the snowplow, and it took me a long time. Okay? Long story short, two weeks later, we just took all the IOTs Okay. That were open to us on the snowplows of, uh, uh, Helsinki, those that removed, uh, the snow, but those also that, uh, actually put sand and salt on the, uh, on the roads. And we put 'em on the map on your phone, and everyone could see where the snow plow was, uh, two to four hours ago and know which road are open or not. So the IOTs were there, the snow plows were working, you know, someone was using that to know where they are, what they're doing, et cetera, et cetera. But now we took that and made it something useful for all the citizens, visitors, uh, of, uh, of Helsinki. Right. Um, and, and this is the idea. The idea is really to take this data and make something out of it. The other thing is that, um, I know you're gonna ask it, so, uh, if I can, uh,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:07:14 Go ahead. <laugh>.
Moshe Gazit 00:07:16 Uh, the, the other thing is that, uh, it all comes in real time. Okay. So you can rely on that. It, it happened seconds ago, right? And, uh, also was verified, uh, uh, uh, the, the data is very, or the information is verified by a patented system of, uh, things. So we can talk about it, uh, if you want later. Um, so you actually have a real time, um, uh, something to relate to in relation to your need. Let's say go out of home and be, uh, and be there on the road. And then we extended it also to the bus stations of Helsinki. So you could actually see if the bus station is usable after the snow was removed. Mm. How simple is that? Right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, because these bus stations have also IOTs on them. Um, so you take all these things and you make it something that people can relate to in real time and, and make great use out of it.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:08:12 That's, that's a really great example too. And I feel like the possibilities are almost endless. Endless, right? Absolutely. So are you looking at doing this in, uh, okay, mobility? In, in, what sectors are you like?
Moshe Gazit 00:08:25 So we are talking about, yeah, we are talking about, of course, cities mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, mobility, uh, um, in businesses as well, you know, chambers of commerce that, uh, want to make sure that their, their businesses are there, they're online real time. They can, uh, uh, give some information to people and, and say, I'm here. This is what I do. Um, this is also possible, uh, you know, we call it, um, uh, physical marketplace twin, uh, that, uh, you know, ev all marketplace are now, uh, uh, very online, et cetera, but they're also marketplaces in probably thousands of small cities that, uh, need to be, uh, present somehow, and they can be also present, uh, in real time and, uh, and do something with it, uh, for their sake and the sake of their customers.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:09:09 What do you think is the biggest, um, area that you see where a city could have the most benefit from using it? Which area do you think?
Moshe Gazit 00:09:16 Um, I, I, I, I think it's about, um, let, let me take it from a little bit of a different angle mm-hmm. <affirmative>, if you don't mind. Mm-hmm. Okay. Uh, we believe that when you provide real time of high quality and, uh, and verified information to people, and they can manage themselves in a better way than the environment is managed in a better way, the city, the road, you know, uh, businesses, et cetera, et cetera. So we're encouraging cities to do that because cities in, in a way, again, I'm not, I've, I've never run a city, but met a lot of people in a way, they try to manage everything okay. They try to manage it to people, the lights, the, uh, you know, the, uh, the, the, the crossings, the everything. And it's very difficult to do that. It, it's, it's, it's quite a big job, and part of it can be actually given to people to manage themselves better. And, and this is what, this is where we come from. So I think that, uh, in a broader, uh, uh, uh, aspect, this is the, uh, this is one of the, uh, one of the main points. Uh, and it could be in many different, uh, in many different, uh, SE segments. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:10:25 Really interesting stuff. Um, what about, uh, on the flip side, what could go wrong? When does IOT fail us?
Moshe Gazit 00:10:33 Alright, so, uh, it can happen, you know, it's, it's, it's a machine in a way. Uh, it's, it's an electronic device, uh, that can go wrong mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and it could be, uh, it could be, uh, you know, uh, broken down or, or anything like that. Um, uh, it could be, uh, it could be transmitting something that is not real, or it could also be manipulated one way or another. You know, we have cyber things, et cetera. So it, it can happen again. Um, and, uh, uh, it, it's important to, to, to, to make sure that the data coming from the IOTs is verified, okay? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that's why we made this, uh, um, this, uh, uh, patented system, uh, L D V Live verification, uh, uh, uh, data, um, uh, that, uh, we, we learn, uh, how the data is there. And by this AI system, we can say if something, if there is an anomaly. Mm-hmm. And this is very important. So people don't rely people, businesses, uh, cities, whatever. They don't rely on something that, uh, we captured in real time. That is something wrong. Or, you know, may, maybe, maybe there is, uh, something, but at least we can say something's wrong there, go and go in, uh, uh, and, and check it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's where, that's where it is. Yeah.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:11:50 Yeah. Yeah. Um, to maybe skeptics out there, what would you say to, um, to maybe people that say, ah, but it's, it's maybe unnecessary or maybe it's, um, it's just another, another technology. How do we, how do we implement it effectively and I guess negate the naysayers?
Moshe Gazit 00:12:09 Yeah. Um, you know, the, the, uh, the, uh, uh, what, what, what we bring to the, uh, to the, uh, to the world today is actually real time presence, okay? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:12:21 What does that mean?
Moshe Gazit 00:12:22 Exactly. And, uh, let, let me compare it with online, okay? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so online, like, uh, 20 years ago was something completely very new.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:12:33 Yeah. What does that mean, <laugh>?
Moshe Gazit 00:12:34 Exactly. Yeah. What is it? What, what's going on? What, what can we do? True. But today, online for us, is, is a, is a need, is a must, is a, uh, is, is a reality. Okay? We, we, we can see ev almost everything online, not everything, but almost everything online. But online is information, great information, okay? You get it. And real time is action. Okay. When you get real time information, you can action based on that. And I will give you the most stupid, you know, example, um, Friday morning, okay. I, uh, I have a free day and I go to a business. I need to do something with my, uh, with my license, with my driving license. I go to the shop that does it, and normally the opening is closed, and there is this little paper says, yeah, sorry, we're closed today. Ah,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:13:19 That's the worst.
Moshe Gazit 00:13:20 I look at, I look at online and it says, open, these are the, the opening hours. But if it was, uh, uh, real time, we would know. We would know it's not. Mm-hmm. Okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I wouldn't, I wouldn't waste time. Yeah. I wouldn't waste one hour going one hour back, you know, and all that stuff. And then looking for something and alternative mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and, uh, you know, people can say, ah, this is, this is not the end of the world. No, it's not. But it's frustrating and you can plan your life better, especially today when, you know, everybody's stressed. Everybody has to do so many things, et cetera. So we are saying real time information can really help you manage your life better and have these information or these needs, you know, met in a better way. Mm-hmm. So that's, that's the comparison that I do. Yeah.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:14:11 Yeah. Yeah. Saving time,
Moshe Gazit 00:14:13 Um, frustration, time, uh, planning, uh, you know, and, and, and everything else that, uh, we all, uh, uh, are in lack of <laugh>.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:14:22 Yes. Yes. I've had that happen to me, by the way, so much recently. It's kind of incredible how, how little, how many times it says it's open on Google, and how many times I've gone to a store recently and it's been closed, so
Moshe Gazit 00:14:34 <laugh>. Yeah. So, yeah. You know, and, and, and it's, it's kind of crazy, isn't it? Yeah. Because, and, and then this, this could be really, really easily, uh, um, you know, uh, sorted out.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:14:46 Yeah, absolutely. Um, that would be great. I would, I would appreciate that. I want one just for myself, um, just to
Moshe Gazit 00:14:52 Exactly enable, cause we, we know what we face on the day to day, and each one of us has different, uh, you know, has different, uh, I would say experiences. Yeah. So it could be on the road, it could be with businesses, it could be, uh, doing something with in the city. Mm-hmm. Um, would it be good to know if the truck that is coming to collect your, uh, waste or trees, you know, what you catch of the trees, when is it coming, where it is, et cetera, would it be good to know in real time where safe places are in the city? Because you can actually give that Yeah.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:15:26 For emergencies, it's super important for emergencies, right?
Moshe Gazit 00:15:28 For emergency, for important, right. For outage mm-hmm. <affirmative> for, uh, you know, uh, um, floods and stuff like that mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so you don't have to, to start pushing emails or telling on the radio and stuff. You can have something that is, uh, uh, uh, so there's so many things that we can talk about. It's, you know, we, we, we, we, we don't have enough time for that. Yeah. But real time coming from the IOTs that are already there. Mm-hmm. You don't have to almost do anything. Yeah. In most cases, they're already there.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:15:54 That's good. Um, that's, that's really, really insightful. I, I want to also ask you about, um, basically the management and analysis of this data then. So, so basically, um, they, how do they derive meaningful insights and then make decisions based off of that?
Moshe Gazit 00:16:12 Okay. Um, I, I want to, I want to, um, uh, you know, to to, to lower your expectation here. Yeah. Okay. <laugh>, because we don't do that. Yeah. Yeah. We don't do that. Uh, for the reason that we want to be completely GDPR compliant mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. Um, we, we just transform the data into information. We make our AI system learn how it works, so, uh, we know if there is an anomaly mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and then we don't use it anymore. Yeah. So, on one hand, we are not keeping any data of any, uh, you know, municipality or anyone like that. Okay. We're just transforming it. And on the other side, we don't even know who is coming onto the platform to use it. Yeah. So it's completely new in terms of, uh, that the analysis that can be done, you know, the stakeholder Yeah. Of the data, the, the owner of the data can do that, of course, but we don't do that for him not to go into keeping data, analyzing it, of course, you know, manipulating it, et cetera, because we don't feel that this is what we want to do, and we want to continue being just, you know, the place in between these channel Yeah. And the in between that does the little magic and they could do the rest.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:17:25 Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> good. Um, what do you think? Uh, so we're here at Urban Future, and a lot of it is also about sustainability and how we can, um, you know, I was just in a, in, um, in moderating a session on sustainability by data. Um, so obviously a lot of our conversations have to go in this direction of, okay, we're doing all these cool innovations and stuff. How does that actually impact climate and sustainability? Absolutely. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so what do you think is the environmental implications of this?
Moshe Gazit 00:17:55 So let me give you one example. Okay. Maybe we can discuss more about that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, we, uh, we are very keen about, uh, about parking, uh, lots, the car parking garages and, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, and, and places. And, uh, you can actually show, uh, in which place in in which, uh, um, part of the city, the, those garages are full or semi fool or where they are. So, uh, let's say Stuttgart, you're coming out of the city. Okay? So if you kilometers before you can already know where you want to go, and where do you have free spaces? And, and that is, instead of coming to the place and see on these signs in the streets, oh, this is full. So I have to go there and this is full, so I have to go there. You can plan it in advance.
Moshe Gazit 00:18:38 What does it mean? Do you know how many millions of kilometers not driven? Does it mean, for example? Yeah. Okay. And people that are less frustrated, of course, they know where to go. They know how to plan their, uh, their trip. But this is also, I believe, very environmental, shorten the trip to what it needs to be. Okay. Don't tell people don't drive. Okay. This is another, this is another story. But if they do give them real time information in advance so that they can do it. So let's say they, each car has driven five kilometers less, you know, looking for parking, multiply that by all the cars that are coming in, you know, you can do the, uh, well, we can do the math, probably. Yeah. And then this is part of it, okay. About this, uh, uh, um, being more environmental mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, and of course we can, we can make many, many other use cases, uh, uh, similar to that. Not all of them are, are about en about the environment, but, but, uh, uh, there could be many more. They're
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:19:43 All inter It's quite interlinked though, right? Absolutely. Even when you're talking about the use case from the snowplows, right? Absolutely. It's, it's traffic, right. And these things. Yeah. So, yeah, exactly.
Moshe Gazit 00:19:53 So at the, at the end, it contributes to, you know, the, uh, the goals of the cities to cut on emissions and to be co2, uh, neutral, you know, et cetera. Yeah. So if they can count it and put it in, that's, that could be part of their, uh, you know, part of their, uh, uh, um, you know, uh, um,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:20:11 Yeah.
Moshe Gazit 00:20:12 Contribution. Sorry. Yeah. <laugh>. No, I
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:20:14 Know. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, do you have another project or anything that you want to share today?
Moshe Gazit 00:20:18 So, for example, what we did was also en environmental, uh, uh, in, in a different aspect. So, uh, we did, uh, um, uh, we did for the city of London, uh, the, uh, cleaner routing mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. So, uh, what happened was that, uh, the city of Westminster in London, they wanted to encourage, they want to encourage people, uh, to walk more mm-hmm. <affirmative> rather than to take the car. Um, and, uh, what we did is to have the data of the, uh, uh, air quality sensors, uh, and transform it into, uh, into routes on your map. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So if you, uh, want to go in London from A to B, um, you, you'll get three different routes. The red one, the orange one, and the green one, telling you where the air is best at this moment that you are, that you're walking mm-hmm. <affirmative> based on existing IOT's, existing sensors of air quality. So, you know, another, another example of, uh, you know, taking different data and make it something very interesting.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:21:17 We need that Instacart, it's very bad air here cuz we're in the valley, you know,
Moshe Gazit 00:21:21 So very much. Yeah. Yeah. Very much. And, uh, and, uh, it could, it could be really be useful here. Yeah, absolutely. But it could be useful any anyway. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I mean, uh, you know, people walk, people take their bites, et cetera, and at least you give them the choice Yeah. To choose, you know. Yeah. Uh, how to go and, uh, giving them some information about, okay, this is where you can have, you can breathe better.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:21:42 Have you seen any results from that? Have people been choosing that route more often?
Moshe Gazit 00:21:46 Or do you know? So we have, we have, we, we, we, we are still, we are still, uh, uh, in, in the process of, of, uh, um, you know, uh, testing it. Yeah. But, but, uh, apparently the tests are very, uh, very encouraging. Yeah. Good. With, with the city of London, it's, it's very encouraging. Um, and, and know when I talked about Helsinki before, so I have, I have someone that I know there, and she uses this, and she, she keeps, you know, she, when it's snowing, of course, she keeps saying, oh, today it saved me, you know, so <laugh>, there you go. Big issue in Helsinki, apparently today. It was so good. It was, it was, yeah. It was great to, to have it, et cetera, et cetera. Um, uh, parking's in San Sebastian, you know, uh, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:22:27 Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, really interesting stuff. You've already taught me a lot, but I, I'm wondering if at this point, did we miss anything? Do you want to the audience to know anything? I wanna give you the open floor if
Moshe Gazit 00:22:39 You'd like to. Yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I think that, uh, um, you know, we, we, we can cover so many things with this, uh, with this, um, uh, realtime verified information, uh, that comes from IOTs. And we are talking about, um, you know, services that are available, public transportation, just to give you an idea, a very simple iot can tell you if the bus is full or not, and you can know that in advance, not when you're in front of it, and you can make a decision again, you know, decision making for people. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you can make a decision, I'll take the next one, or trains coming in. Okay. And, you know, which wagons are more, uh, crowded than, than others, just based on an iot. And, and we color the wagons. We can color the buses and we do that, uh, coming into a city, we can color the entrances, how they are in terms of, uh, in terms of, uh, traffic in that entrance to the city.
Moshe Gazit 00:23:33 And every city has those, you know, those bottlenecks that, uh, that are coming, uh, in, um, we can talk about EV chargers. So everybody's running after Egypt. And the one thing thing is, you, you never know if DV charger is working and is available at this point in time. Okay. So that's also possible. And all these things are linked. They have sensors there, and if this information or this data is, is available, the information out of it could be of a huge, um, uh, uh, you know, use for people that, as I say, again, sorry to repeat it, so many times, can manage their lives in a bit of a better way. Yeah. Uh, so proudness and, um, you know, so many things. Yeah. Yeah.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:24:18 Absolutely. It's, it's really then, if I understand correctly about giving people the information, uh, that's already there, right? It, it's already there. It's
Moshe Gazit 00:24:28 Just Exactly. Oh,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:24:30 In, in the, in the universe. <laugh> not, not in the hands of people. Right. Exactly. Yeah.
Moshe Gazit 00:24:34 <laugh>, you just have to make it in a way that it's easy to use. Okay. Yeah. And again, not overload, but people can, when they use the app, they can use, they can choose what they want to see at this point in time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So is it the buses? Is it the ev charging, you know, is it the, uh, the air? Is it noise? You know, we, we could also have that, uh, places that, that are noisy, uh, temperatures, uh, you know, there's so many things. Yeah. Yeah. There's
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:25:02 So many things. Much anything. Right. All right. Good. Um, that's, that's it for our main interview part. Um, I wanted to, uh, go into our little segment and the se segment we chose for you today is flip the script. Flip the script. You are the one asking the questions, and I'll be the one answering them. Mosha, do you have a question for
Moshe Gazit 00:25:25 Me? Uh, I do. Um, um, you know, you, you, you told me about it, you know, that, uh, uh, it, it happened to you so many times, uh, you know, about, uh, open or close and, uh, mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it was frustrating. What kind of information, you know, when, when you're walking around the city or traveling around Europe or, or stuff like that, what kind of information is missing? What, what, what, what's, what is, what's out there that you could use to make your life a little bit more, um, not more, less frustrating. Less
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:25:56 Frustrating? Yeah. Um, okay. So let me think of the first things that come to my mind, right. Just off the bat. Um, I never know if, um, if the restaurants are also, if they allow dogs. Um, I never know if they are. Um, I guess it would be really nice to also know if restaurants are full. That's a, that's a big thing. Uh, oftentimes in the US we can, uh, actually see like the waiting list online and everything's a lot more digital. But when I'm here in Europe, I find that you don't find that, and people don't answer the phones. So you just go to a restaurant and then you're disappointed by the fact that it's, uh, full and you have a long waiting period, and then you have to go somewhere else and find something else. Um, other things, of course, with, uh, with parking, I don't drive much anymore, but I have had many, many experiences where I've been like, why can't I just know what, which parking, uh, parking spot is, uh, is open right now? Um, I also, trying to think of anything else, um,
Moshe Gazit 00:27:00 It's like, we agree on that before, but we didn't. Right. It was, it was a surprise. Yeah. And you know, it's amazing because you're talking about, uh, uh, cases that are easily solvable. Yeah. Okay. Uh, and we are, we are already offering to some chains of restaurants and chains of stores. This kind of, uh, this kind of solution. Why? Because by having them saying open close, and you click on that, uh, business, okay. It could be a restaurant, it could be a shop, could be anything. There could be a little window coming out and giving all this information that you need about dogs, about the temperature inside, about how many people, about please don't come before 22 because we are not going to attend you. Right. Yeah. And they, there is a possibility to, to, to give that, uh, that kind of information. For example, in, uh, parking. Uh, so the cities have to do the parkings on the streets. Okay. And this is a different story, but the parkings that are underground and, and, and, and stuff, uh, you can have how many, how many spots are, are available? They,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:28:00 They say on the sign anyways,
Moshe Gazit 00:28:01 Right? Yeah, they do. But you have to get there. You have to
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:28:03 Get there. Yeah. Know, you have to get there. I know. That's what I'm
Moshe Gazit 00:28:04 Saying. Don't even get there. Yeah. If it's, you know, then, and not only that, they can also say, you know, there are those, um, specific spots for moms and kids mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you can say how many of them are available, uh, for disabled people. For
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:28:17 Disabled, I would think that was huge.
Moshe Gazit 00:28:19 Yeah, exactly. So you can put at the same time, just open this little window when you click on it with our system, and you can see all this information at a glance, one second, and you know, everything. So these are those little things. All these, all these places can transmit this information to you so that you're not going there and say, oh my God, I lost now half an hour just coming here, standing here and doing all that. Um,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:28:44 The trains are another big pain point in here, um, as in most places I think as well. Um, but many delays, many trains canceling, many, many problems. I was coming back from Brussels last week mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and my train was completely canceled, and I had no idea. And I woke up at five in the morning to go catch my train, and then I had to sit in the train station for hours waiting to come back. Um, the trains are, uh, public transport could definitely still use a lot. I love the, um, actually, I love the signs on Instacart in each of the bus stops where it says exactly how many minutes in real time till the bus comes. I think that's great. But, but
Moshe Gazit 00:29:24 Let's, yeah, but let's take that. Okay. So the signs that they're, meaning there is an iot on the bus, there is transmitting somewhere Yeah. That is giving this information on these signs. Yeah. Why not having on your phone?
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:29:34 Yeah, they do, they do have an app too. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it, it, it, I mean, on, on the local transport apps, they do show the real time. Okay. Of course, that they're coming. So that's very good. But, um, in, in some places it works better than others. Right, right. <laugh>, so, so yeah,
Moshe Gazit 00:29:50 The reliability is course. So all these things are, and you know, you just mentioned, uh, a actually our, I would say, uh, uh, potential and real customers or, or partners. So it's certainly the mobility, the rail, we are talking to them already. Okay. Yeah. Uh, we are talking to rail companies in different countries. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, we are talking to bus, uh, um, uh, you know, uh, builders, uh, uh, yeah, we're talking to integrators in cities and in mobility that are willing to add value to what they're already doing with their hardware, you know, with our system, uh, and of course, cities, uh, et cetera. So yeah, we, we, we, we can work and we can do it in different, uh, in different circles, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, and, uh, no, and, and we don't need people to go on our app. Okay. We are very, we are very happy also to, to, to do the information on the city's app or the, uh, or the co or the transport company app. We know how to do that. And, uh, we can, we can, and it,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:30:50 It's more reliable than what they have in place, well say, or
Moshe Gazit 00:30:54 Yeah. I, I don't want to judge them, but, but certainly, but certainly having realtime information that is verified could add value. Yeah. Let's put it like that. Yeah. Yeah.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:31:02 The verified is important. <laugh>, absolutely. Very important. <laugh> from my just that personal, uh, experience. Yeah. Um, so, uh, now we're to the final question, and it's the question we ask every single guest. Okay. And it's, to you, what is a smart city?
Moshe Gazit 00:31:17 I think a smart city, uh, um, and I, I was insinuating that <laugh>, I was hinting that, yeah. I think I know your answer. Yeah. During
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:31:25 My hope. Yeah.
Moshe Gazit 00:31:27 A smart city is a city that smartly involves its, uh, citizens, uh, with, um, uh, information that can make them more knowledgeable and agile Okay. On doing things. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, of course, you know, we can talk about a lot of in technologies, et cetera, et cetera. At the end, if you engage people into your smart, um, environment and through that, um, you can make a lot of things, even the, uh, sustainability planet tree do that, you know, there's so many things that you can do just by sharing more, uh, uh, you know, valuable, uh, information. I think that's getting very smart. And then people also perceive it as very smart.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:32:17 Yeah. When they get all the information in
Moshe Gazit 00:32:19 Their hands Yeah. They say, wow, I know what to do now. Yeah.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:32:22 Yeah.
Moshe Gazit 00:32:22 Yeah. And, and I, I think that's the, uh, that's, and, and from there on the sky is the limit.
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:32:27 Yeah. Very good words to end it on. So, huge thanks again. Also, um, to urban future for allowing us to do this
Moshe Gazit 00:32:34 To Urban future to BABLE and to you guys that you're amazing
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:32:38 To you.
Moshe Gazit 00:32:39 And, uh, yeah. And we hope to, uh, to, to make many good things for the world. Yeah,
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:32:42 Absolutely. And check out the contest, by the way, it's open, uh, just for a little bit longer, so make sure to jump on it as soon as you listen to this. Um, so it's free and simple to apply and you could secure a realtime presence for, and
Moshe Gazit 00:32:54 We already have a few that apply and they're
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:32:56 Very interested. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a, it's a fierce competition, I guess, going on, but, uh, you, you have a good chance still. So, um, yes. So until next time
Moshe Gazit 00:33:06 Thank you Tamkyn, thank you so much
Tamlyn Shimizu 00:33:07 Thank you so much. Thank you. And to all of our listeners, uh, don't forget, you can always create a free account on bable-smartcities.eu to find out more about smart city projects, solutions, implementations, all these cool things happening. Um, and with that, thank you so much. Thank you all for listening. I'll see you at the next stop on the journey to a better urban life.
