US: As the world continues a massive urban shift, Google has announced the formation of Sidewalk Labs, an innovation company that will develop technology for physical and digital worlds, with a focus on improving city life for residents, businesses and governments. The company’s CEO will be Dan Doctoroff, who is the former CEO of Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor of Economic Development and Rebuilding for the City of New York. Sidewalk Labs wants to tackle the biggest challenges that urban dwellings face, including transportation inefficiency and high energy usage.
“By improving urban technology, it’s possible to significantly improve the lives of billions of people around the world. With Sidewalk, we want to supercharge existing efforts in areas such as housing, energy, transportation and government to solve real problems that city-dwellers face every day. Every time I talk with Dan I feel an amazing sense of opportunity because of his passion for all the ways technology can help transform cities to be more livable, flexible and vibrant. And when you combine that with his experience as an investor, in NYC government, and as CEO of the large information company Bloomberg LP, I can’t imagine a better person to lead these efforts.”
— Larry Page, Google chief executive
“We are at the beginning of a historic transformation in cities. At a time when the concerns about urban equity, costs, health and the environment are intensifying, unprecedented technological change is going to enable cities to be more efficient, responsive, flexible and resilient. We hope that Sidewalk will play a major role in developing technology products, platforms and advanced infrastructure that can be implemented at scale in cities around the world.”
— Dan Doctoroff, CEO, Sidewalk Labs
Source: Sidewalk Labs
