In 2017, Alphabet announced plans to create a futuristic city in Toronto, Canada, via Sidewalk Labs. The company, after abandoning those plans last year, will soon be folded back into Google.
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For the past several years, one Alphabet division has been trying to build a neighborhood of the future in Toronto, Canada. Sidewalk Labs announced today that it’s “no longer pursuing” the Quayside smart city.
Sidewalk Labs is focussed on incorporating the latest technologies into cities. For the past several years, it has been planning the city of the future through Sidewalk Toronto, with Alphabet’s full vision published today.
One of Alphabet’s lesser known companies is focussed on reimagining cities for the future through “cutting-edge technology.” An experiment is underway to create this new kind of space in Toronto, with Sidewalk Labs this week publishing a draft site plan that dives into affordability, infrastructure, and sustainability.
Sidewalk Labs is one of Alphabet’s lesser known subsidiaries, but is inline with the other ‘bets’ given its plan to use “new technology to address big urban challenges.” One of the first projects is to revitalize Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront with the initiative possibly breaking ground in 2020.
In a collaboration with the city of Toronto, Sidewalk Labs – owned by Google parent company Alphabet – today announced plans for its latest project set to span 800 acres of Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront.
If you live or work in NYC, you may have already seen the LinkNYC kiosks that offer free gigabit WiFi access, USB charging ports and more, funded by the ads they display on the embedded screens. But Alphabet-owned Sidewalk Labs believes they can do much more.
According to documents obtained by Re/code, Sidewalk Labs wants to embed into the kiosks a whole range of sensors designed to improve safety and quality of life …
Earlier this year was reported that Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs wanted to build a city from the ground up to test ideas it has for improving city life, while that report was followed by a separate one that claimed the team was looking to pitch the idea to Larry Page. Now, The Guardian has obtained a handful of documents that offer more details on the company’s plans for improving life in the city – specifically when it comes to transportation.
Earlier this month it was reported that Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs wanted to build a city from the ground up to test its ideas before rolling them out on a more wide scale basis. Now, The Information reports that Sidewalk is moving forward with this plan, codenamed “Project Sidewalk.”
Alphabet is known for aiming for the moon with a lot of its efforts, and its Sidewalk Labs initiative appears to be no different. Sidewalk Labs has been around for about a year now and aims to improve WiFi availability and traffic in cities, but it looks like its plans don’t stop there. Sidewalk CEO Dan Doctoroff hinted that the company may be looking to build a city from scratch while speaking in New York at an event held by The Information.
When Google CEO Larry Page announced the formation of a new division, Sidewalk Labs, to “improve city life for residents, businesses and governments,” it was all a bit vague. The company has now got rather more specific, stating that its vision is to bring free, high-speed wifi to every city street worldwide – and that New York is first in line.
[We will] make cities connected places where you can walk down any street and access free ultra high-speed Wi-Fi, find transit and wayfinding information, access information about city services
To kick things off, Sidewalk Labs has acquired the two companies behind LinkNYC, and is partnering with Qualcomm and Comark to turn up to 10,000 phone booths into communications hubs offering free gigabit WiFi across New York City …
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