Sidewalk Labs: Google has built an internet empire by measuring everything: clicks, GPS coordinates, visits, traffic, etc.
The company's resources are the information about you, which they record, package, repackage, and then use to sell you things.
This global data power is coming to the real world. Google is building a city.
On Tuesday afternoon, the City of Toronto announced that Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet, will help redevelop 12 acres of the southeast waterfront. The area is currently home to a few industrial buildings and a few parking lots.
Within a few years, a tech community called Quayside will be created. Sidewalk Labs has already committed $50 million to the project, and Google is preparing to move its headquarters to the area of Toronto.
Once the company delivers the project, it plans to expand the redevelopment of the entire area, which occupies an area of 800 acres.
It will be Google's neighborhood, built from the ground up. Sidewalk Labs promises to embed all sorts of sensors everywhere, recording every bit of information about traffic flow, noise levels, air quality, energy use, travel, and waste.
The cameras will help the company collect data to answer much more vague questions: Did residents who use a particular clinic get sick during flu season? Is this corner the best spot to set up a grocery store? Will it work with local shoppers or those from a different neighborhood?
Sidewalk Labs seems well aware of the weaknesses of city-building technologists, and their arrogant optimism. The company insists: This redevelopment will be extremely careful.
“This is not some random activity on our part,” Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt said Tuesday.
“It’s the culmination, from our perspective, of almost 10 years of thinking about how technology can improve people’s lives.”
The company's vision is dominated by the fantastic. The proposal for the redevelopment of the waterfront neighborhood outlines a community where everyone will have their own account:
“A highly secure, personalized portal through which every resident will have access to public services and the public sector.”
He will be able to use his account to go to the gym, or to open his house door for the plumber while he is at work.
A mapping app will “record the location of all parts of the public space in real time.” The construction will prioritize walkers and cyclists, rather than cars, although there will be shared “taxis” and “vanbots.”
It will test a new housing concept called the Loft, for more flexible spaces that can be used for whatever the community needs. It will experiment with building materials such as plastic, prefabricated modules, and timber in place of steel.
And yes, Sidewalk Labs says it's working on a comprehensive privacy plan.
It should be noted that Sidewalk Labs' approach is based on observed events, and takes into account the data it has collected from people. Thus, the construction will be based on people and not on high design principles.
Sidewalk Labs faces a unique challenge: building a place that works for everyone. Alphabet is very good at collecting personal information and repackaging it to sell things.
But things, in this case, include basic city functions, such as waste collection, safe streets, or efficient public transportation.
“I think the company needs to show that it can provide city services that are not limited to a few,” says Sarah Kaufman, of New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation.
“That means they should serve the elderly, the disabled, and the poor – populations that cities serve and private companies don’t.”.
Sidewalk Labs insists it wants to do just that….
