Google Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs strikes deal to turn 800 acres of Toronto into an ‘in

[ainvan]

Google Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs strikes deal to turn 800 acres of Toronto into an ‘internet city’

Sidewalk Labs, the smart city subsidiary of Alphabet with the stated goal of “reimagining cities from the Internet up,” now has a very big sandbox in which to conduct its high-tech experiments. The Google spinoff announced a deal with the city of Toronto to develop 800 acres of waterfront property into its own digital utopia.

Waterfront Toronto, a city agency tasked with overseeing the development along the shore of Lake Ontario, is teaming up with Sidewalk Labs to create a new venture called Sidewalk Toronto. On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined top executives from Alphabet, including executive chairman Eric Schmidt, to announce the deal, which includes a $50 million commitment from Sidewalk Labs for the installation and testing of the company’s smart city technology. The cost of the project, currently dubbed Quayside, is likely to run over $1 billion, according to an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal.

The announcement is the culmination of months of teasing hints by Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff about a deal to build a city-within-a-city to trial self-driving cars, public Wi-Fi, new health care delivery solutions, and other city planning advances that modern technology makes possible. Indeed, the rumor mill has been churning about a mythical “Google Island” since even before the company spun off Sidewalk Labs as its smart city incubator.

The Verge

Sidewalk TO

[ainvan]

• Video Link

[ainvan]

Alphabet to Pack its Digital City With Autonomous ‘Taxibots’

Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous vehicle technology will be a big part of its Toronto project to make urban life more Googley.

Sidewalk Labs LLC, a unit of Google parent Alphabet, and Waterfront Toronto unveiled plans to build a digital district in Canada’s largest city. Sidewalk’s official plans filed with the city and released on Tuesday include visions of all sorts of robotic transport: driverless bike-like vehicles, larger self-driving vans, robotic delivery and even autonomous trash collection.

Sidewalk Labs said it will work with companies such as Waymo to deploy a "baseline fleet of taxibots and multi-passenger vanbots." Existing providers, such as Lyft, would be welcome to enter the market, it added. "A key goal of the taxibot system is to use competition to improve user experience, and individuals will be encouraged to include any privately-owned self-driving vehicles in the system as well," according to Sidewalk’s plan.

In the near-term, Sidewalk plans to run a six-to-twelve person autonomous shuttle in the summer in a specific area of Toronto to get residents used to the technology. "Single-person selfdriving vehicles might eventually be integrated into an elevated transport system, such as a gondola," Sidewalk added.

The Alphabet unit also plans to move goods, not just people, autonomously through its digital district. It envisions an "internal robot delivery system" for all businesses and residents in the Quayside area of Toronto, and will seek to expand it further. Finally, a four-part solid waste system Sidewalk imagines would include a waste hauling system the relies on autonomous vehicle technology, according to the plan submitted to Toronto.

Bloomberg

[FrankieFlowerpot]

It's only 12 acres (to start at least) - the entire Portlands is 800 acres

[gunnar777]

Originally Posted by FrankieFlowerpot

It's only 12 acres (to start at least) - the entire Portlands is 800 acres

Will this have a major impact on the Portlands?

And if only anyone had any clue what an acre really was.
1 hectare = 100m x 100m <--- easy to visualize, multiply, divide.
1 acre = god knows what. A bunch of yards multiplied by a handful of furlongs, not easily divisible by anything, and always laid out in sort of a banana shape?

[Dalreg]

Originally Posted by gunnar777

Will this have a major impact on the Portlands?

And if only anyone had any clue what an acre really was.
1 hectare = 100m x 100m <--- easy to visualize, multiply, divide.
1 acre = god knows what. A bunch of yards multiplied by a handful of furlongs, not easily divisible by anything, and always laid out in sort of a banana shape?

640 acres is 1 mile x 1 mile. Or 5280 feet x 5280 feet.
Therefore 1 acre is 1/640 of 27,878,400 square feet or 43,560 square feet.

208.71 feet x 208.71 feet = 1 acre.

Not hard to figure out.

To put it into a Toronto equivalent, roughly two x NHL ice surface at the ACC.

[gunnar777]

Originally Posted by Dalreg

640 acres is 1 mile x 1 mile. Or 5280 feet x 5280 feet.
Therefore 1 acre is 1/640 of 27,878,400 square feet or 43,560 square feet.

208.71 feet x 208.71 feet = 1 acre.

Not hard to figure out.

To put it into a Toronto equivalent, roughly two x NHL ice surface at the ACC.

It's funny, because from my point of view, your answer only strengthened my point. It's not that the arithmetic is particularly difficult, it's that there is zero logic to what an acre is, and I don't think anyone has a visual idea of what an acre is, i.e. who can image 1/64 of a square mile? Why go to the trouble of 208.71 ft by 208.71 ft?

My point is, I don't think anyone can instinctively tell if Alphabet's 12 acre project is big or small or kinda big or sorta not all that huge, so let's just dump acres already.

1 ha = 100m x 100m. There. That makes sense.

[Dalreg]

Originally Posted by gunnar777

It's funny, because from my point of view, your answer only strengthened my point. It's not that the arithmetic is particularly difficult, it's that there is zero logic to what an acre is, and I don't think anyone has a visual idea of what an acre is, i.e. who can image 1/64 of a square mile? Why go to the trouble of 208.71 ft by 208.71 ft?

My point is, I don't think anyone can instinctively tell if Alphabet's 12 acre project is big or small or kinda big or sorta not all that huge, so let's just dump acres already.

1 ha = 100m x 100m. There. That makes sense.

I can visual imperial very well, guess I'm old enough to understand. Guess you are a younger genreation that can't adjust, think for yourself? (need someone to make things all neat and tidy?)

12 acres is both big and small, depends on what you are using that area for. 12 acres is a dam small farm. 12 acres is a dam big backyard. All in how you think. Most people in Toronto could not tell you how big a city block is. So whether you mention 12 acres or 5 hectares. People can not comprehend it.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Dalreg

640 acres is 1 mile x 1 mile. Or 5280 feet x 5280 feet.
Therefore 1 acre is 1/640 of 27,878,400 square feet or 43,560 square feet.

208.71 feet x 208.71 feet = 1 acre.

Not hard to figure out.

To put it into a Toronto equivalent, roughly two x NHL ice surface at the ACC.

Lol, that just proved his point. 1/640th of another illogical unit, very clear. But of course it's the fault of our young minds that can't adapt to change, only your wisdom can shine a light on the true best way to measure area.

[FrankieFlowerpot]

Originally Posted by gunnar777

Will this have a major impact on the Portlands?

There's literally a map in the opening post of the thread.

[suburbanite]

The implications of this for the development of the rest of the Portlands is interesting though.

Waterfront Toronto isn't selling any of the land they own from Jarvis to Leslie (we tried to get some). It's all long-term land leases. So when it comes time to open up areas for residential and mixed-use development, does this agreement with Google have precedent over whatever deal is struck with a private developer? For example, Menkes leases a piece of land to build a condo. Are all of the residents now obligated to use Google trash collection? Will the site require accommodations for driverless cars?

Seems odd to promise such a large piece of land for the company's playground when they're only developing a small sliver of it.

[MolsonExport]

Can someone please translate the area under question into Jucharts and Virgates?

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

The implications of this for the development of the rest of the Portlands is interesting though.

Waterfront Toronto isn't selling any of the land they own from Jarvis to Leslie (we tried to get some). It's all long-term land leases. So when it comes time to open up areas for residential and mixed-use development, does this agreement with Google have precedent over whatever deal is struck with a private developer? For example, Menkes leases a piece of land to build a condo. Are all of the residents now obligated to use Google trash collection? Will the site require accommodations for driverless cars?

Seems odd to promise such a large piece of land for the company's playground when they're only developing a small sliver of it.

I believe this is a case of bad reporting. It's 12 acres. I guess if Alphabet is awarded the Portlands they will be picking development partners that see their vision as the leases come to terms. There's a number of parcels that aren't owned by The Port Lands Company. They'll still be able to do whatever they want. I believe the condo proposal at Cherry and Commissioner is one not owned by the TPLC.

[TorontoDrew]

From today's BBC..

'Future city' to be built in Canada by Alphabet company
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41665670
At first, Sidewalk Labs will develop 12 acres (48,500 sq m) of land can we move on now?

Sidewalk Labs, owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet, is to build a digital city in Toronto.
It aims to turn a waterfront area into a working laboratory for a range of "smart" technology.
It is likely to feature fast wi-fi availability, millions of sensors, sustainable energy and autonomous cars.
Technology companies are touting their hardware and software to cities, as urban planners tackle issues such as congestion, pollution and overcrowding.
Public-private partnerships such as the one in Toronto could bring benefits, but cities needed to be sure about what they were getting out of the deal, said Robert Puentes, an urban planning expert from US think tank the Eno Centre for Transportation.
"Cities are trying everything they can to boost their economies and build infrastructure, but they have to realise that companies are not doing it for altruistic reasons - they are interested in generating profit for their shareholders," he said.
"Cities need a clear vision of what they want to achieve, and they shouldn't expect the private sector to do the job for them."

[TorontoDrew]

From todays CNN.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/18/tech...abs/index.html
Google, a company that's built everything from a search engine to a self-driving car, will now try its hand at a city neighborhood.

Sidewalk Labs, an urban innovation company owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, is teaming with Toronto to begin planning a neighborhood designed as a model for urban life in the 21st century.

Sidewalk Labs will invest $50 million in an initial phase of planning and pilot testing. Alphabet has also pledged to relocate Google's headquarters in Canada to the new neighborhood, called Quayside, which is on the Toronto waterfront. Google has roughly 1,000 employees in Canada.

Sidewalk Labs plans to do everything from reduce pollution, commute times and landfill waste to improve the weather. It envisions reducing the impact of wind, increasing shade on sunny days and blocking rain due to smart building design and tree planting.

In an ambitious proposal, Sidewalk Labs promised to make the weather more comfortable to enjoy the waterfront. It also believes it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 73%, potable water consumption by 65% and landfill waste generation by 90%.

[suburbanite]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I believe this is a case of bad reporting. It's 12 acres. I guess if Alphabet is awarded the Portlands they will be picking development partners that see their vision as the leases come to terms. There's a number of parcels that aren't owned by The Port Lands Company. They'll still be able to do whatever they want. I believe the condo proposal at Cherry and Commissioner is one not owned by the TPLC.

Privately owned parcels are few and far between. The site on the Southeast corner of cherry and commissioners is owned by the City's Economic Development Corp, which holds all of the titles that TPLC manages.

The article made it sound like the the commitment to develop the 12 acre site would provide Google with the opportunity to use the Port Lands as a testing ground for their various infrastructure projects. I can't imagine the city would promise anything drastic that could potentially affect land values as they begin to lease parcels for development.

[The Macallan]

Originally Posted by milomilo

Lol, that just proved his point. 1/640th of another illogical unit, very clear. But of course it's the fault of our young minds that can't adapt to change, only your wisdom can shine a light on the true best way to measure area.

It’s amusing that a person with your handle should be so eager to run down the logic behind the mile and its derivatives or components. The word comes from the Latin for “thousand.” It was based on a thousand paces of a soldier in a Roman Legion on a Roman road. Each pace was what we might consider a double pace, that is, a marching step with each foot. This would be about five feet. As such, the mile was an easily conceptualized and utilized unit that required no surveying and which yielded useful real world information, such as when a Legion might be expected to arrive at its destination. Of course, it was logical ... just not the logic of our immediate times.

In the English world the unit was adjusted somewhat to consist of a number that was easily divided without paper into component units. Once again this is logical though not the logic of the metric system.

I think we ought to complete our conversion to the metric system but I do not want to scorn either our ancestors or those who are attached to the older system.

[gunnar777]

Originally Posted by Dalreg

I can visual imperial very well, guess I'm old enough to understand. Guess you are a younger genreation that can't adjust, think for yourself? (need someone to make things all neat and tidy?)

12 acres is both big and small, depends on what you are using that area for. 12 acres is a dam small farm. 12 acres is a dam big backyard. All in how you think. Most people in Toronto could not tell you how big a city block is. So whether you mention 12 acres or 5 hectares. People can not comprehend it.

For the record, I'm in my 20's, and a graduate with a science degree, which might explain my proclivity towards completing metrication in Canada (let's restart the change with the Alphabet project!) I do understand feet and pounds, and I believe that I can adjust and think for myself, but I have no emotional attachment to imperial units.

I do have an attachment to the idea of an aerial tramway, though! Now that's something I hope we can all agree on.

[FrankieFlowerpot]

https://sidewalktoronto.ca/wp-conten..._Site-Plan.pdf

All towers to be built in wood

[MonkeyRonin]

Dystopian, but at least it's pretty!