Smart City / Autonomous Infrastructure

Securities Times reports that China's urban underground pipeline networks are entering a new round of construction. Building on the national 'six networks' initiative, the country is using intelligent IoT and large AI models to strengthen urban safety and resilience while driving effective investment. The underground utility tunnel in Suzhou Industrial Park has deployed distributed temperature-sensing optical fiber, enabling uninterrupted monitoring across the entire area with temperature accuracy of plus or minus 0.1 degrees Celsius and positioning accuracy of 0.1 meters. Nationwide, 7,700 kilometers of underground utility tunnels have been completed so far. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, about 770,000 kilometers will continue to be built or upgraded. CITIC Securities estimates investment of about 5 trillion yuan, with intelligent sensing equipment gaining an incremental market worth hundreds of billions of yuan. Companies such as Guangge Technology and Hanjia Digital Intelligence are developing AI algorithms and intelligent agents to shift pipeline operation and maintenance from breakdown repairs to early warning of sub-health conditions. Some regions have already set up special purpose vehicle management companies to centrally collect data, and Shanghai has connected pipeline data covering 180,000 kilometers.

On August 25, the intelligent driving sector rebounded in intraday trading. Zhejiang Shibao hit the daily limit, while Xingyuan Zhuomei, China Post Technology, Yachuang Electronics, Wanji Technology, and Fulongma also rose. In news, according to Xinhua News Agency, the draft revision to the Road Traffic Safety Law submitted that day for initial review to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress includes a dedicated chapter on special provisions for autonomous vehicles. It defines the concepts of autonomous vehicles and assisted driving functions, and clarifies that when a road traffic safety violation occurs while an autonomous vehicle's automated driving function is activated, the manufacturer or importer of the autonomous vehicle shall handle the matter. Institutions noted that 2026 has been officially established as the first year of mass production for Level 3 autonomous driving in China, with multiple policy, technological, market, and competitive signals resonating, marking a critical turning point for the country's intelligent driving industry.

Kagoshima Bank and the Kagoshima City Transportation Bureau announced on the 21st that they have reached a basic agreement to develop and operate a transit money function using a bank payment app. The transit payment function will be added to the Pay Don app, which was developed by the bank and is jointly operated with financial institutions in the prefecture, making it usable on local route buses and city trams. Operations are scheduled to begin in late October, and this is said to be the first case in Japan of a transit payment function being operated on a cashless payment app from a financial institution using QR codes. The aim is to improve the convenience of public transportation and promote cashless payments.

The Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand, or MRTA, has signed contracts hiring consultants to study the Silver Line rail project from Bang Na to Suvarnabhumi Airport and the Grey Line from Watcharaphon to Thong Lo. The studies will take about 12 months, and both projects are expected to be submitted to the cabinet for approval in 2028. Initially, both projects are expected to be developed under a PPP Gross Cost model, in which the public sector invests in civil works and bears all revenue risk, while hiring private companies to build the systems and manage the projects over the long term. For the Silver Line, the route has been extended to connect to the south passenger terminal of Suvarnabhumi Airport, following discussions with Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited. For the Grey Line, the study will examine convenient connections with other rail lines. MRTA has signed a contract with MHPM Company Limited as consultant to study and design the Grey Line Phase 1 from Watcharaphon to Thong Lo, worth 76.35 million baht, and hired Chotichinda Consultant Company Limited as consultant to study and design the Silver Line from Bang Na to Suvarnabhumi Airport, worth 75.70 million baht.

Pro Inside Public Company Limited, or PIS, reported first-half 2026 net profit of 164 million baht, up 8% from the same period last year. Total revenue was 1.531 billion baht, up 6% from 1.439 billion baht. The company has a backlog of 6.096 billion baht, which will be recognised as revenue over the next three to four years. It targets 2026 revenue growth of 10 to 15% from the previous year, supported by public-sector investment megatrends in digital government, cloud first, smart security, and smart grid.

Calix, Inc. announced a grid monitoring solution on its AI-native Calix One platform, extending capabilities to utility providers. The solution combines the newly launched GigaPro GPR1011XH optical network terminal, AXOS-powered E-Series access appliances, and network operations tools on a standards-based passive optical network architecture. Building on insights from utility industry leaders Conexon and Irby Utilities, Calix is expanding trusted partnerships with more than 100 electric cooperatives, municipalities, and utility providers. The company highlighted that electric cooperatives own and maintain nearly 42 percent of U.S. electric distribution lines, and that its platform has enabled outcomes such as reducing OSS/BSS integration from 18 months to 10 weeks and turning up subscribers 83 percent faster.

Rekor Systems has been selected by the South Carolina Department of Transportation for a seven-year contract with a potential value exceeding $22 million, subject to final negotiations. The company will maintain and modernize SCDOT's traffic count, vehicle classification, speed monitoring, and weigh-in-motion sites statewide, replacing aging in-road sensors with AI-powered roadside systems to improve data accuracy and reduce maintenance-related lane closures. The contract is also available to South Carolina cities, counties, and other local agencies, which could push the total value above the $22 million statewide baseline. Rekor will provide the infrastructure and manage the systems under a Data-as-a-Service model, while SCDOT receives validated traffic data. Shares of Rekor Systems traded 2.25% higher at approximately $0.68 following the announcement.

The global 3D mapping and modeling market is projected to reach $29.2 billion by 2031, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.6% from an estimated $17.63 billion in 2026, according to a new report from ResearchAndMarkets.com. Digital twin software is expected to be the fastest-growing segment, driven by infrastructure digitalization and integration with BIM, GIS, LiDAR, and reality capture. Cloud deployment is anticipated to lead the market in 2026 as organizations adopt scalable, connected geospatial workflows. North America is forecast to hold the largest market share, while Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest-growing region due to rapid urbanization and infrastructure investment. Key drivers include expanding digital twin deployments, growing UAV-based reality capture, and AI-powered automated feature extraction.

Tampa Electric Company has chosen Ericsson, OneLayer and Burns & McDonnell to deploy, manage and secure its expanding private LTE network. The utility, an early adopter of private LTE among U.S. investor-owned electric companies, is expanding its Mission Critical Network built on Ericsson LTE technology to support tens of thousands of connected devices over the next five years, with several thousand in the first phase. OneLayer’s Bridge platform provides SIM lifecycle management, device integration and real-time visibility, while Burns & McDonnell handles integration with existing operational technology systems. The deployment includes automated provisioning, network segmentation and geofencing to control device interactions as the infrastructure scales.

Landis+Gyr has expanded its Edge Application Ecosystem in Australia by adding Future Grid and Operational Technology Solutions as new partners. The move strengthens the company's open global ecosystem, bringing new edge applications that enhance real-time intelligence and network reliability. The platform enables utilities to deploy advanced analytics and AI-driven insights on Landis+Gyr's Revelo grid sensing platform. Future Grid provides a SaaS platform for real-time low-voltage distribution network management, while OTS offers expertise in data analytics and edge sensors. The partners join an existing ecosystem that includes Sense and Mitsubishi Electric.

Digital Zhengtong recently launched the Xingkui 2.0 urban low-altitude operation service platform, advancing the low-altitude economy from concept validation to real-world deployment. Xingkui 2.0 is a comprehensive upgrade of the company's Xingkui Plan, an air-space-ground integrated city-level low-altitude economy SaaS platform. Centered on artificial intelligence, it builds a low-altitude intelligent service operation system featuring airspace coverage, full-process management and control, and all-factor coordination. The Xingkui Plan has already deployed over 500 drones nationwide, landing in nearly 100 cities including Fuzhou, Wenzhou, and Changchun, and will implement more than 30 low-altitude application scenarios by 2026. At the launch event, the Low-Altitude Plus Urban Governance White Paper, jointly compiled by Digital Zhengtong and Central University of Finance and Economics, was officially released, and the Low-Altitude Economy Industry-Academia-Research Innovation Practice Demonstration Base, co-established by both parties, was unveiled. In addition, Digital Zhengtong has formed strategic partnerships with upstream and downstream enterprises in the low-altitude economy industrial chain, engaging in deep cooperation in areas such as data collection, intelligent perception, airspace planning, and urban governance.

Samsung Medical announced that its controlled subsidiary Fox has signed a contract with Stoen Operator Sp. z o.o. for the delivery of AMI smart metering infrastructure for the Polish power utility. The total contract value is 97,295,900 zloty, approximately 175 million yuan. Fox will supply smart meters and communication modules to the counterparty. This is an overseas operating contract and is currently in the signed stage.

Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Company Limited, or BTS, together with Eastern Bangkok Monorail Company Limited and Northern Bangkok Monorail Company Limited, operators of the Yellow and Pink Line monorails, have partnered with Via Group (Thailand) Company Limited, developer of the ViaBus application, to allow passengers to track train positions in real time for the first time in Thailand. The service covers the Sukhumvit and Silom lines of the Green Line, as well as the Yellow and Pink Line monorails, and displays the destination of each train. Train position data will be linked to other public transport networks on the ViaBus app, including buses and passenger boats, which have over 10 million users, enabling multi-modal journey planning from a single platform. This collaboration marks a significant step in developing a multi-modal public transport information system that connects rail, road, and water for seamless travel.

PaveX, a Purdue University-related startup, has received a $305,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation to develop its AI-driven road condition assessment technology. The 18-month project will advance the company's patent-pending, vehicle-mounted sensing approach that automates route planning and distress detection, aiming to help agencies plan repairs sooner and more efficiently. CEO and founder Mohammad Jahanshahi said the system will reduce manual bottlenecks and improve detection reliability through a Bayesian multiframe data fusion framework. Since January 2025, PaveX has surveyed over 6,200 miles of roads across five states. The NSF-funded effort is a step toward scaling the technology for widespread use, with future potential integration into autonomous vehicles for continuous infrastructure monitoring.

KODE Labs announced that its building operating system, KODE OS, has achieved FedRAMP High authorization through Palantir Technologies' FedStart program. The authorization clears KODE OS for use by federal agencies and other high-compliance organizations in the most sensitive, mission-critical environments. KODE OS is already operating federal buildings under a $14.35 million contract with the U.S. General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service, deploying across 150 GSA-managed buildings in the National Capital Region. The platform is now listed on the FedRAMP Marketplace as part of Palantir's Federal Cloud Service, assessed against the NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 High baseline. KODE Labs designed the offering to meet the FedRAMP High standard from the outset, with security built into the platform's architecture, application development, software supply chain, and day-to-day operations.

The Cabinet has approved in principle a draft royal decree allowing the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand to operate electric train services in Songkhla province, as proposed by the Ministry of Transport. The draft decree authorises the MRTA to expand its operations into Songkhla, in addition to its existing operations in Chiang Mai, Phang Nga, Phuket, Nakhon Ratchasima, and Phitsanulok. The project is a monorail mass transit system with a total distance of 12.54 kilometres and 12 stations. It includes one depot and maintenance centre at Khlong Wa station, and three transport interchange points at Khlong Wa, Kho Hong, and Rot Tu stations. The stations are designed as three-storey structures situated on median strips, intended to connect various transport modes and accommodate passenger volumes from surrounding areas of Hat Yai city and nearby provinces. Park-and-ride and drop-off areas will also be provided. The MRTA board has already approved the plan, which is in line with the resolution of the Land Traffic Management Committee.

STAR Systems International is supporting the launch of a new series of Multi-Lane Free Flow tolling projects across India, including the landmark Delhi-Jaipur Pink City Expressway in Rajasthan. The deployments use the company's Titan Pro reader and Avior antenna to enable vehicles to travel at highway speeds while tolling transactions are automatically identified and processed in real time, eliminating conventional toll barriers. The projects span multiple locations, including Choryasi in Gujarat, Mundka on Delhi's Urban Extension Road-II, Shahjahanpur, Daulatpura, and Manoharpura in Rajasthan on the NH-48 corridor, and Gharaunda on NH-44 in Haryana. The initiative supports the Government of India's vision for a safer, smarter, and more efficient national highway network through digitization of the tolling ecosystem.

The EEC Business Center and Smart Livable New City project, known as EECiti, has drawn interest from more than 100 leading Thai and international investors and entrepreneurs at a private sector consultation seminar organized by the Eastern Economic Corridor Office, or EECO. Participants expressed confidence in the project's potential and interest in co-investing through a public-private partnership model. EECO will incorporate the feedback to refine project details and prepare to select private partners according to the scheduled timeline in 2028. Key recommendations include developing infrastructure in phases, creating demand to support investment, and providing green financial support.

At the Fifth National Virtual Power Plant Application Development Forum, industry insiders believe the virtual power plant sector is reaching a turning point, quietly activating a power hardware market worth hundreds of billions of yuan. Dong Wenjie, Technical Director of Integrated Energy at Dongfang Electronics, stated that a virtual power plant is an intelligent dispatch and control system with real-time regulation capabilities, and linking intelligent terminal hardware is the core key to implementing intelligent dispatch commands. Chen Ziqi, CEO of Nanjing Yushan Information Technology, said bluntly that the real execution mechanism lies on the hardware side, which must be able to calculate accurately, control reliably, and achieve closed-loop operation, and he predicted this market will reach the hundred-billion-yuan level. Data from the National Energy Administration shows that by the end of 2025, there were 470 virtual power plant projects nationwide, with a maximum regulation capacity reaching 16.85 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of about 70 percent. Each project implementation means massive distributed resources need terminal retrofits, metering upgrades, and edge controller deployment. Currently, the hardware product lines have formed three major categories: air conditioning intelligent control terminals, edge controllers, and intelligent metering terminals and circuit breakers. Listed companies such as Jianan Intelligence, Acrel, Taiyong Changzheng, and Clou Electronics have already laid out related hardware products. In 2026, 16 provinces have opened up related markets, and the electricity spot market is expected to basically achieve formal operation before 2027, with the core of market competition shifting to hardware terminal access retrofits.

Jishi Media has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Yushu Municipal People's Government to promote comprehensive digital transformation under the Digital Yushu initiative. The two sides will gradually scale up the results of a previously launched smart agriculture pilot, aiming to build a benchmark smart city for county-level regions in Northeast China. The cooperation will upgrade from a single agricultural digitalization scenario to a full-dimensional government-enterprise collaboration system covering urban governance, public services, industrial upgrading, and digital infrastructure. Jishi Media will prioritize strengthening Yushu's digital foundation by upgrading information and communication networks, building a city-wide IoT sensing system and a local cloud computing platform, while simultaneously providing communication resources and county-level brand promotion channels. Jishi Media Chairman You Zhiqiang stated that the county-level market is the main battlefield for building Digital Jilin, and Yushu Party Secretary Liu Jinglei noted that the construction of a digital and intelligent Yushu has been incorporated into the city's key plans for the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

Tibet Jiatou Energy Technology, a joint venture between Jianan Intelligence and Nyingchi municipal state capital, was inaugurated in Nyingchi on July 28. Jianan Intelligence's subsidiary Jiachen New Energy holds a 70 percent stake. Positioned as a comprehensive power service provider for high-altitude areas, the company focuses on smart energy services, integrated solar-storage-charging, and plateau smart microgrids. Using Nyingchi as a core hub, it plans to build high-power charging piles and distributed solar-storage systems adapted to the plateau's low-temperature environment, promote county-level smart microgrid pilots, enhance demand-side response capabilities, and create a clean energy demonstration model for southeastern Tibet. Jianan Intelligence will leverage its technological expertise in smart meters, charging equipment, and energy storage systems to carry out specialized adaptations for high-altitude, low-temperature, and strong ultraviolet operating conditions. Industry analysts believe that as the construction of Tibet's clean energy base advances, this deployment is expected to open a new regional growth curve for the company.

Itron reported second-quarter 2026 non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.59, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 22.3%, and raised its full-year earnings guidance, sending shares up 26.2% to close at $107.02. Revenue fell 7% year over year to $563 million, driven by a 17% decline in the Networked Solutions segment due to project deployment timing, but management lifted its 2026 non-GAAP EPS forecast to a range of $6.30 to $6.50 from the prior $5.75 to $6.25. The company reaffirmed its full-year revenue outlook, narrowing it to $2.37 billion to $2.41 billion, with second-half revenue expected to grow about 8% year over year. Total backlog stood at $4.4 billion, and quarterly bookings were $550 million, indicating sustained demand. Adjusted gross margin expanded 460 basis points to 41.4%, and non-GAAP operating income rose to $89 million from $82.2 million a year ago.

NextNav and Safran Electronics & Defense have announced an agreement to integrate and demonstrate interoperability between NextNav's terrestrial 5G Positioning, Navigation, and Timing network in Santa Clara County, California, and Safran's timing and navigation receiver. The collaboration aims to evaluate how terrestrial 5G-powered PNT capabilities can complement existing navigation and timing technologies and contribute to more resilient positioning, navigation, and timing solutions for drones, autonomous systems, critical infrastructure, and public safety operations. The program will assess how terrestrial PNT signals can provide additional layers of continuity, redundancy, and resilience for mission-critical applications that depend on assured positioning and timing services. Results from the testing program will support ongoing assessments of performance and applicability across critical infrastructure, autonomous systems, public safety, and national security use cases.

KeepZone AI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nexera Technologies, has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Israeli firm Kronomy to market fully managed autonomous aerial security services across Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina. Under the two-year deal, KeepZone becomes Kronomy's sole distributor, business development collaborator, and sales channel for all current and future products, including drone-in-a-box systems and AI-powered threat analysis. Kronomy's service combines on-site autonomous drones with 24/7 manned command and control centers, having already completed more than 12,000 operational flights for clients in Israel such as critical infrastructure sites and healthcare facilities. The partnership aims to integrate autonomous aerial surveillance into KeepZone's existing homeland security portfolio, which includes perimeter protection and counter-unmanned aircraft systems, targeting government agencies, critical infrastructure operators, and smart-city authorities in the region.

Geely Auto has announced it has obtained China's first certification certificate for a combined driver assistance safety management system for automotive production organizations. This certification is a mandatory compliance requirement directly tied to market access. The certificate, numbered 001, was obtained at a critical juncture as the mandatory national standard for safety requirements of combined driver assistance systems for intelligent connected vehicles is about to be implemented. With just over half a year remaining before the full enforcement of the mandatory standard in January 2027, all vehicle models on sale across the industry must complete this system certification before they can be sold. As one of the core drafting units of this mandatory national standard, Geely Auto incorporated its vast amount of real-world testing data from complex domestic road conditions into the regulatory clauses, and completed internal process alignment during the standard framework development phase, thereby securing the first certification as soon as the standard took effect. Currently, the penetration rate of Level 2 driver assistance systems in new vehicles in China has exceeded 70 percent, and the installation rate of advanced navigation-assisted driving has surpassed 30 percent. This system certification is effectively a compliance permit for automakers' intelligent vehicle models, forcing the entire industry chain to address shortcomings in the full lifecycle management of intelligent driving safety.