35,000 people could live inside CITE, a new city being built in the deserts of New Mexico — but they never will.
Instead, CITE, which stands for the Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation, will be used to test new technologies, like alternative energy sources and smart transportation systems, such as driverless cars.
“New technologies can be tested at scale, allowing researchers and manufacturers to manage the unpredictability of product performance before being introduced into the market,” the CITE website explains.
A contemporary ghost town, CITE will have all the features of a typical, modern city, including houses, a hospital, and a police station. The project, budgeted at $1 billion, is backed by technology development firm, Pegasus Global Holdings.
In 2012, Business Insider reported that construction was slated to begin, but the project was put on hold for a few years after CITE ran into issues finding a location, CNN reports.
Now, CITE is just waiting on commercial licenses that will allow them to break ground as early as this year.
Keep reading to learn more about the $1 billion “human-less” city.
Here’s an aerial view of the proposed city, which will span 15-square-miles.
And here’s an animated look at CITE.
Underneath the city, CITE will be connected and monitored by its operations system, or “Backbone.” The Backbone is divided into three systems: energy, water, and data.
Above ground, CITE will include several Field Labs for research and testing, also broken down into specific districts: water, agriculture, energy, and development.
Photo Courtesy of CITE
At the center of CITE is City Lab, “an above ground, unpopulated, fully operating, and real-world lab environment representative of a mid-sized American city.”
Photo Courtesy of CITE
Here’s a digital representation of what the City Lab could look like. Check out the high rise buildings and interstate highway.
CITE will also have a campus building for research teams to use. It will be built near the entrance to CITE, “far enough from field labs as to not interfere with testing.”
Photo Courtesy of CITE
Here’s a more detailed look inside the research campus.
Construction is slated to begin this year and CITE could be up and running by 2018, CNN reports.
Photo Courtesy of CITE
