[THE INVESTOR] Google announced on Oct. 25 that it has joined hands with LG Electronics for a project to build a smart town in Korea.

The smart town to be built by the two tech firm as well as real estate developers will embrace cutting-edge technologies such as Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence. The company did not reveal the exact location and timetable.

Rhee In-jong, executive vice present of Google’s cloud IoT unit, speaks at Google Cloud Summit in Seoul on Oct. 25.

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“Since the project is still in the early stages, details like location and scale have not yet been decided,” said Rhee In-jong, executive vice present of Google’s cloud IoT unit, in a keynote speech during the Google Cloud Summit conference in Seoul.

“We will partner up with more companies, including real estate developers and investors, to build smart homes and smart towns,” he added.

Describing what a smart town would look like, he said children would be given extra time to cross the road at traffic lights by automated traffic monitoring systems. Energy monitoring systems, energy-efficient lights, and smart thermostat can enhance energy efficiency of a building, while AI-powered Google Assistant and Nest smart home devices can allow home appliances to be interconnected.

LG and Google have for long collaborated in various sectors, including projects for TVs and smartphones.

The Korean firm manufacturers one of the US company’s Nexus smartphone models while Google’s assistant app is installed in LG’s home appliance products.

Rhee, who left Samsung Electronics in December last year before joining Google, led the development of AI solution Bixby as chief technology officer.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)