THE GOOGLE CITY Toronto Sidewalk Labs is a venture that was life laboratory. Comparing entire smart release by Sidewalks of a 1,500-page founded in 2015 by Alphabet, Google’s cities with an urban project managed proposal in June 2019 provided free parent company. It was the winning by Google was a task that needed to access to Sidewalk Labs’s vision and the bidder in Toronto’s search for an be undertaken with a certain level of core attributes of the Quayside project. organization to lead its smart city methodological caution. The Google subsidiary had started to project. However, in spring 2020, the work with urban planners, engineers, firm announced that it would no longer Our analysis of Toronto’s documents and experts to develop innovative be developing a project to transform and publications revealed two areas solutions. Consulting their project let Toronto’s waterfront. in which the city scores poorly relative us see their vision of a city that would to the other cities in our study: Basic be sustainable and affordable and make Two factors led us to select Toronto, Sanitation and Medical Services. the most of innovations in technology though these were somewhat tangential and urban design. to the positioning of our work. One is Two obstacles quickly hindered the related to the scale of Toronto’s smart Sidewalk Labs project. First, the The Sidewalk Labs project mixed city project. Originally, it was to be health emergency brought about buildings, autonomous vehicles, and no more than an econeighborhood. by the COVID-19 pandemic created cutting-edge wood-frame towers, However, with the agreement of unprecedented economic uncertainty, all equipped with IoT systems. Over Toronto’s local government, Sidewalk and the Toronto real-estate market two and a half years, Sidewalk Labs Labs made the project’s geographical could not continue to offer the financial invested time, people, and resources scope fifteen times larger, increasing sustainability that private investors had in Toronto. The plan was for the city it from twelve acres to 190 acres. come to expect from it. Second, many to become a real-world laboratory. Second, Sidewalk Labs is a former people raised concerns and expressed Unfortunately, the plan will not Californian startup and a native of critical views about what they saw as be implemented. Nevertheless, it Silicon Valley, a part of the world handing over the keys to the city to a represents the strategic entry of a large that has become emblematic in the private company. player in a new industry. What remains development of artificial intelligence, to be seen is whether it will be Google’s smart devices, and online knowledge Before and after the Sidewalk project first and last such attempt, or whether sharing. Via its subsidiary, Google thus was shut down, working on the the experience and knowledge that the promised large-scale experimentation, different documents was not delicate firm accumulated will motivate it to try a transparent project, and the prospect but attractive thanks to the access to again. of turning some of Toronto into a real- a massive amount of information. The 20 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021