Opportunities and Challenges of Urban Agetech: from an Automated City to an Ageing-Friendly City

TL;DR

This paper discusses the integration of advanced agetech services into urban environments to create aging-friendly cities, emphasizing automation like robots and automated vehicles as essential city functions to support the elderly.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of urban agetech as a comprehensive approach to embedding automation in city services for elderly care, expanding beyond traditional home-based solutions.

Findings

Automated systems can enhance elderly independence and safety.

Urban agetech can reduce caregiving costs.

Integration of automation into city infrastructure is feasible and beneficial.

Abstract

Caring for the elderly, aging-in-place, and enabling the elderly to maintain a good life continue to be topics of increasing importance, especially in countries with a higher percentage of older people, as people live longer, and care-giving costs rise. This position paper proposes the concept of urban agetech, where agetech services beyond the home can be an integral part of a modern ageing-friendly city, and where support for the elderly, where needed, in the form of automated systems (e.g., robots and automated vehicles) would be a normal city function/service, akin to the rather commonplace public transport services today.