Alphabet's subsidiary Sidewalk Labs wants to build a test city for fixing urban problems

Alphabet funded Sidewalk Labs to fix big urban problems, and one way of doing it is to build the city of the future from the ground up. A report posted on The Information details efforts by Sidewalk head Don Doctoroff to invite bids from counties and states for a digital district, and a possible city construction project. At the same time, Sidewalk is holding talks with technologists and urbanists to figure out the details of constructing a techno-utopia. Having its own city will allow Sidewalk Labs to rapidly test and deploy and emerging technologies. The Verge had reported earlier on Sidewalk putting together a dream team for the purpose of making urban lives better. This team’s mandate was to create new products that solve urban problems. The fallout has been a bunch of interesting questions, including “what if the city itself is the technological product that can solve urban problems” and “how to make cities better for autonomous vehicles?” The smart city vision of Sidewalk labs includes high speed, cheap internet access to all residents and cities built for large number of hybrid self driving cars. Congestion of vehicles can be managed by mobility applications. High cost of home ownership can be mitigated by using new materials and innovative ownership models. Renewable energy systems can be used to reduce the carbon footprint of fossil fuels.