Sidewalk Labs is working on a proposal to bring a large, sensor-driven “smart city” to Toronto’s waterfront — and the world is watching.Yet Environics Research recently conducted a survey for the Toronto Region Board of Trade that found 50 per cent of Torontonians haven’t heard, or aren’t sure if they’ve heard about the project.So, using the letters of the Alphabet (Alphabet is also the name of the company that owns Google and its sister firm Sidewalk Labs) the Star is providing a brief overview of the key names, issues, places and players in this ongoing and controversial story.Alphabet, the parent company of Google and Sidewalk Labs is based in Mountain View Calif., northwest of San Jose. The company was born after the corporate restructuring of Google in October 2015. Sidewalk Labs, an “urban innovation” firm based in Manhattan, was formed later that year and is working with Waterfront Toronto to build a tech-driven smart city on Toronto’s waterfront. Alphabet is a company worth tens of billions of dollars U.S., revenues driven largely by Google. Aside from Google and Sidewalk, Alphabet includes Google Maps, Chrome, YouTube, mobile operating system Android and other entities. Late last year Sidewalk Labs began negotiating with Illinois to sell the state a tool called Replica that maps out commuting patterns using an individual’s de-identified cellphone location data. Illinois plans to use Replica to build a travel demand model that gives city planners the ability to “run alternative scenarios for where traffic would go if a new bridge or road were constructed.” Sidewalk has offered to bring the tool to Toronto for free.Sidewalk Labs won a competitive request for proposals (RFP) that Waterfront Toronto, a tri-government corporation dedicated to revitalizing Toronto’s waterfront, issued in March 2017. The RFP calls for an innovation and funding partner to create a “globall ...
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