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| Google's dream of building a smart city in Toronto has ended |
The dream of parent company Google Alphabet ended with the ambitious goal of making the Toronto Waterfront one of the first smart cities in the world where millions of dollars and years of tension were insufficient. Technology is turned off. Sidewalk Labs Department of Urban Planning official project.
Dan Danovov, CEO of Sidewalk Labs Infrastructure, said the reason for the statement was the impact of the coronary virus epidemic on real estate prices, and that the project could not be completed without an opportunity to sell offices and homes during the development phase. .
The resistance said from data protection activists, but Toronto's Sidewalk Labs' ambitions were drastically reduced before the virus spread to the world. In addition to the reaction of exceptional members of the Canadian technology industry, the 12 hectare property only contains space for some residential and commercial buildings.
Sidewalk Labs failure illustrates how attitudes toward large technology companies have changed in recent years and affected our lives, and thus companies like Alphabet, whose human and financial resources cannot do this. It is not clear if this is what someone can do.
Compared to the past few years, digital data protection and control is one of the most common concerns, and the idea that initially seemed futuristic and exciting to many people is now being challenged by global politicians from Google, Facebook, Amazon and other companies under attack for more support.
After Canadian officials asked private companies to help develop a large number of previously vacant industrial waterfront parks in the city, Sidewalk Labs announced a new Quayside project in Toronto in 2017.
(Sidewalk Labs) issued a comprehensive comprehensive innovative development plan in June 2019 that includes a comprehensive real estate development project that will occupy approximately 200 acres of the city's eastern waterfront and exceeds the original demand by far.
In one of the most important real estate markets in the world, the project achieved profitability and an ambitious plan, including underground heating and disposal piers and large wooden buildings while sensors monitored the area and data flow equipped with a computer equipped with artificial intelligence to manage the rainwater system and direct traffic.
One of the proposals includes a railway linking the area to the rest of the city's public transportation network, a thermal power grid, a transportation network with hot bike paths, and adaptive lamps (Sidewalk Labs) invested more than $ 50 million in the project, including the opening of an office space for 30 Person.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomed the alphabet and agreed to an interview with then President (Eric Schmidt) to introduce the technical department in Canada. Trudeau's tax exemption for the major American technology companies that bring their jobs to Canada is the principle of his economic policy.
A group of local business leaders, including former BlackBerry CEOs, refused to take the move, arguing that the American giant would destroy emerging domestic companies according to Trudeau's guidance, and the roadmap became easy and put pressure on politicians to demand them. Stop the project.
Meanwhile, old questions about data protection and the company's own role in urban development are becoming increasingly important as Toronto residents face the prospect of an American company monitoring and collecting information about some of their cities, as well as local activists and technology research. People also requested that sidewalk laboratories become more transparent.
To complicate matters, the project monitoring organization consists of representatives of local, regional and federal governments, and everyone wants to express their views, and the project has gone through an endless series of proposals, meetings and consultations.
Alphabet's ultimate goal for the Toronto project was never clear, and he pushed the Canadian Civil Liberties Association to sue the company, accusing it of providing law-breaking technologies. Privacy of Canadians.
When Sidewalk Labs retired from Toronto, the parent company underwent major changes. Sundar Pichai took office from Larry Page in December. Covid-19 devastated the global economy, weak spending, and slowing employment. Resources focus on fewer projects.