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

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.