The first phase of the project will see Cavnue testing potential technologies and roadway designs. The firm will work with other companies in the space, including Ford, GM, BMW, Toyota and fellow Alphabet subsidiary Waymo to develop standards for use in future autonomous roadways across the country. According to the state, the goal of the project is to design something that is futureproof. What will start as a roadway for autonomous buses will hopefully one day allow work for freight and personal vehicles as well.  

“The action we’re taking today is good for our families, our businesses, and our economy as a whole. Here in Michigan, the state that put the world on wheels, we are taking the initial steps to build the infrastructure to help us test and deploy the cars of the future,” said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. 

Cavnue expects the initial phase of the project to take about 24 months. The important point here is that construction on the project won’t start, if it begins at all, until that part of the project is complete. It could be years before Cavnue builds the first parts of the corridor, but what comes out of the project could be transformational.    

The technical evaluation broke the four-volume MIDP into 160 distinct proposals. Sixteen of those suggestions were labeled “non-support,” which means “new solutions must be explored,” Waterfront Toronto explained in a discussion guide that will inform a second round of public consultation.

The organization rejected an “efficient” and “ultra efficient” housing concept that would have been roughly seven percent smaller than Sidewalk’s equivalent “standard” unit. The proposed homes would have used multipurpose furniture, such as height-adjustable benches that could double as desks or shelves, and flexible walls that could shrink and expand rooms. Sidewalk thought communal eating and co-working could work too, alongside a combination of in-building and off-site storage services.

Waterfront Toronto supported buildings with shared building amenities, but thought the “efficient” units were still too small, according to The Star. Sidewalk Labs wants 40 percent of Quayside homes to be below market rate — of these apartments, it said in the MIDP, the average “efficient” unit would be 578 square feet, compared to the average “standard” of 638 square feet.

Waterfront Toronto also threw out a categorization system that would allow buildings to contain “a shifting mix” of residential, commercial and industrial spaces. Alphabet wanted to move away from single-use zones and adopt a “digital building code system” instead. The approach would measure noise, air pollution and other forms of general nuisance caused by its occupants. For this to work, Sidewalk Labs wanted to shrink Toronto’s building code system down to nine “use-neutral” categories in Quayside. Anything that fell under these categories, which included one-person homes, restaurants and stores, could occupy a space, provided it didn’t breach the building’s predefined nuisance levels.

Alphabet was considering a “lantern forest” that used eight-meter-tall kiosks, clumped together like trees, to protect people from the wind.

Other rejections fell outside Quayside’s brick-and-mortar buildings. Sidewalk Labs had prototyped a special “raincoat” awning that could protect nearby pedestrians from rain, wind and dazzling sunlight. The company thought they could be attached to a single building and moored with peg-like piles, or set up between two buildings like a canopy. In a similar vein, the draft MIDP had proposed “fanshell” shelters for parks and other outdoor spaces. They would come in two styles — a ground-hugging “shell” or a “fan” that sprouted upward like an umbrella — and be constructed from an origami-style fabric that could be folded and packed away when required.

Alphabet was also considering a “lantern forest” concept that used eight-meter-tall kiosks, clumped together like trees, to protect people from the wind. They could be deployed in open spaces that are exposed to the elements, the company said, or placed strategically in so-called “urban canyons” that create narrow wind tunnels between stores and apartments. Waterfront Toronto rejected the raincoat, fanshell and lantern forest concepts, though. “We’re excited to keep looking into solutions for outdoor comfort in our building designs at Quayside, which we will review with Waterfront Toronto on an ongoing basis,” Keerthana Rang, a spokesperson for Sidewalk Labs said.

To power and heat its smart neighorbood, Sidewalk has proposed an advanced power grid, thermal grid, waste management system and stormwater management system. The company said that the thermal grid could be connected to the Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant in Toronto — the second-largest facility of its kind in Canada — which it argued has the “thermal energy potential” to heat “some 35 Quaysides.”

The Alphabet subsidiary also proposed a two-part system for processing food waste in the neighborhood. First, a building inside Quayside would separate the waste and send it to a “neighborhood collection point.” An off-site facility would then remove any contamination and process the waste with anaerobic digesters — microorganisms that can break down biodegradable waste — into biogas. Waterfront Toronto rejected the Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant connection and the use of anaerobic digestion for food waste because it didn’t believe they were feasible for a 12-acre neighborhood, according to The Star.

Most of the other rejections relate to funding. Waterfront Toronto took issue with a suggestion that it would need to make recurring payments to subsidize advanced infrastructure including the thermal grid. It also didn’t agree with the funding required for a Quayside Neighborhood Association, or the idea that 5 percent of homes should be available for owners to part rent and part own through a shared equity program.

These setbacks are dwarfed, however, by the preliminary approvals in the technical evaluation. There were 92 solutions that Waterfront Toronto said it would support provided all funding and delivery was handled by the private sector. The organization approved a further 24 with the promise that it would advocate for additional funding from the government. The final 17 were solutions that it would support while pushing for relevant policy changes and regulatory reform. The 144 approved measures include mass timber buildings, solar-panel and/or vegetation-covered rooftops, EV ownership incentives and charging infrastructure, smart waste chutes and the thermal grid.

According to Sidewalk Labs, most of the “non-support” decisions were merely confirmation of “agreed changes in project geography, governance, or roles.” “That said, we are still in active negotiations with Waterfront Toronto and are still reviewing what will be possible at Quayside,” Rang said in a tweet today.

Those “agreed changes” likely relate to the “threshold issues” that Waterfront Toronto had with the draft MIDP upon its release. The tri-government organization’s biggest concern was Sidewalk’s intent to expand beyond Quayside with a 62-hectare River District that would comprise of five neighborhoods: Keating East, Villiers West, Villiers East, Polson Quay and McCleary. Google also asked to be the lead developer at Villiers West and to build a new Google Canadian headquarters on the 8-hectare land.

In an open letter, Waterfront Toronto said the proposed expansion was premature. “Waterfront Toronto must first see its goals and objectives achieved at Quayside before deciding whether to work together in other areas,” Steve Diamond, the chair of Waterfront Toronto’s board of directors said. “Even then, we would only move forward with the full collaboration and support of the City of Toronto, particularly where it pertains to City-owned lands.” It also rebuffed Sidewalk Labs’ proposal to be lead developer and reiterated that it would go through a “competitive, public procurement process” instead.

Sidewalk Labs agreed to all of Waterfront Toronto’s demands. For now, that means the evaluation process can continue. The project has divided citizens, though, who want change but are wary of Sidewalk’s ties to Google. Waterfront Toronto has until the end of the year to decide once and for all whether the project should go ahead. Before then, it’s likely that Sidewalk will have to negotiate and compromise further on its master plan.

“It will not be an easy negotiation, but I believe there is a will on both sides to make it work,” Sheldon Levy, a member of the six-person committee that reviewed the technical evaluation told George Zegarac, a fellow member and the CEO of Waterfront Toronto in a letter.

Update 02/21/20 12:10PM ET: Added comment from Sidewalk Labs that many of the “non-support” decisions were a result of the “threshold issues” that were negotiated and remedied last year.

Nick Bowden, Replica’s CEO and co-founder, tried to address privacy fears in a blog post announcing the spinout. He stressed that no single user’s location data would be identifiable under Replica. “Replica is not interested in the movement of individuals; we are interested in the collective movement of a particular place. For this reason, we only start with data that has been de-identified. This data is then used to train a travel behavior model — basically, a set of rules to represent the movement in a particular place,” he wrote.

But others argue that the sensitivity of mobile phone location data, when held against Big Tech’s poor track record in safeguarding user privacy, isn’t exactly an encouraging combination. Critics maintain that location data is easy to re-identify, even if it has already been de-identified. “We see a lot of companies erring on the side of collecting it and doing coarse de-identifications, even though, more than any other type of data, location data has been shown to be highly re-identifiable,” said Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic’s Tamir Israel to The Intercept. “It’s obvious what home people leave and return to every night and what office they stop at every day from 9 to 5 p.m.”

So far, Replica has worked with Kansas City, Chicago, Sacramento and Portland. Bowden said that it will be launching full-scale operations in those cities over the next few months. Meanwhile, Sidewalk Labs is working on a proposal for a smart city development in Toronto that has drawn criticism from city legislators for its vague wording, including its plans around mass data collection. As Google’s work with urban planners expands, it will very likely need to answer lingering questions about the type of data it is collecting from a city’s residents and what exactly it plans to do with it.

Quayside and Villiers West

First and foremost, a bit of geographical background. The company is currently proposing two smart neighborhoods — Quayside and Villiers West — that will exist inside a broader area called the Innovative Development and Economic Acceleration (IDEA) district. Quayside would be the first part of the project, and house 4,200 residents. The company is then proposing a partial redevelopment of Villiers Island, called Villiers West, that would house a 1.5 million square foot innovation campus. Google would build a new headquarters on this land and an applied research institute for urban innovation, “anchored by local institutions.” Villiers West would house 2,700 residents and offer 7,400 jobs.

Construction

As expected, Sidewalk Labs wants to use timber to construct most of the buildings inside the Eastern Waterfront. The materials would be sourced from a new factory in Ontario that would, according to the company, create roughly 2,500 manufacturing jobs. The final structures would offer adaptable “Loft” spaces with floor plates that can serve both residential and commercial tenants. They would have also have “flexible wall panels” to accelerate renovations and reduce vacancies. Crucially, the company is promising “an ambitious below-market housing program” that would include 20 percent affordable housing and 20 percent middle-income housing units.

Energy

Every building inside Quayside will have a Toronto Green Standard Tier 3 rating for energy efficiency and a Tier 4 rating for greenhouse gas intensity. The district would also leverage a thermal grid that, in part, relies on the natural temperature of the earth to both heat and cool homes. In addition, Quayside would leverage solar energy, some kind of battery storage solutions, and software called Schedulers to optimize energy usage for residents, businesses and building operators. Finally, the proposed smart neighborhoods would have a “smart disposal chain” that includes an underground tube system for household and business waste.

Data

Sidewalk Labs is pushing ahead with the independent data trust that it first announced last October. The proposed watchdog would oversee, analyze and ultimately approve any company that wants to collect or use urban data — including Sidewalk Labs. The Alphabet-owned company has made three overarching commitments: No selling personal information, no using personal information for advertising, and no disclosing personal information to third parties without explicit consent. The trust, though, could hold other companies to higher or lower standards — for now, it’s still a theoretical concept. The ambiguity though, won’t assure residents who are worried the project will become a privacy nightmare.

Public space

Sidewalk Labs is pitching three major public spaces for Quayside, called Parliament Plaza, Parliament Slip and Silo Field. They would be supported by building “Raincoats” and free-standing “Fannsheels” to provide shelter during harsh weather. The company will also introduce a “stoa” concept that means ground-floor spaces — the type usually reserved for retail — can accommodate shops, restaurants, cafes and community-focused events. In addition, Sidewalk Labs will push ahead with its modular pavement system that could make it easier to repurpose and reprioritize parts of the city — think temporary street festivals, rush-hour cycle lanes or EV drop-off points — for public use.

Funding

Everyone wants to know how Sidewalk Labs will make money from the project. In the MIDP, the company outlined its “specific commitments” and associated “business models.” The commitments include a $900 million equity investment that will form part of a $3.9 billion budget for both Quayside and Villiers West. It’s also proposing $400 million in optional financing to accelerate the development of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) that is needed to connect the area to the rest of Quayside, as well as “municipal and advanced infrastructure systems” in the area.

On the flipside, Sidewalk wants “standard real-estate economics” for property sold and rented across both Quayside and Villiers West. It would also charge for “advisory services,” and “standalone economics” for its investment in the proposed timber factory ($80 million) and a new venture fund ($10 million), based in Villiers West, with a mission to help Canadian startups. Sidewalk Labs would also charge for select technologies that cannot be provided by external partners and “market return” for the optional LRT financing, should Toronto decide to go with it. Finally, Sidewalk is suggesting performance payments, at the end of the project, based on the following:

“Success in accelerating development, achieving priority outcomes, and generating new economic activity and government revenues.”

Timeline

Sidewalk admits that its involvement beyond Quayside — including Villiers West, which would house its new Google office — will need to be “earned, not guaranteed.” It has therefore proposed a number of steps that will be gated — until it completes the first, it cannot start the second, and so forth. The steps include submitting a Quayside development plan before 2021; beginning construction on Quayside before 2022; submitting a Villiers West Development Plan before 2023; beginning construction on Villierst West before 2024; proposing innovation guidelines for the broader IDEA district by 2025; and requesting performance payments by 2028.

“To successfully achieve each stage gate, Sidewalk Labs would prove that its progress was consistent with Waterfront Toronto’s priority objectives and demonstrate the effectiveness of its overall approach,” the company says in the MIDP.

The MIDP has been released in four parts. We’ve embedded each volume below.

Volume 0

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

In a new report, Sidewalk Labs pitches four basic road types for Quayside. The widest and busiest, called Boulevards, would allow traditional cars with a driver behind the wheel. These would be limited to the outside of each superblock, however, while a network of smaller Laneways, Accessways and Transitways crisscross inside. Sidewalk Labs also wants to track and predict usage with a combination of low-cost sensors and machine learning algorithms. It would then use this information to alter the structure of each Boulevard and the vehicles that are allowed to move through them.

The company has shown off its modular pavement system before. These hexagonal pads have embedded lights that can change color to visualize lanes or pedestrian-only sidewalks. The company says it would use these Dynamic Curbs to prioritize transit during rush hour and carve out relaxing public spaces at off-peak times and during national holidays. Some parts of the boulevard would be fixed — you can’t dig up a tram line, for instance — but most would be reconfigurable.

Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) would, crucially, be allowed on the smaller streets inside each superblock. The top speed of these machines, which could include pods, e-bikes and electric scooters, would be software-limited and change depending on the street type they’re on. On a super-narrow Laneway, for instance, they could only travel at up to 4MPH (8KMH), but on a wider Transitway they might reach 25MPH (40KMH). CAVs would be programmed to take the fastest route to your preferred destination. Navigation software would, therefore, push them toward the faster Boulevards and keep the inside of each superblock open for pedestrians.

Sidewalk says CAVs could be hard-coded to stay inside vehicles or bike lanes. On the flip side, these geo-restrictions could be lifted when it’s deemed safe or necessary to make traffic flow efficiently through Quayside. In short, the district would have a basic superblock structure similar to Barcelona’s. But the rules and physical makeup of each street could be tweaked to maximize throughput or the health and happiness of Torontonians.

“Our hope is that, as cities enter the 2020s, that old question of whom streets are for will be resolved,” Willa Ng, mobility lead for Sidewalk Labs, wrote in a blog post today. “The street will once again be a place to stroll, play, and get around safely  —  for everyone.”

The Alphabet subsidiary will test its ideas with a range of real-world prototypes over the coming year. For now, though, the superblock concept is still theoretical, just like the rest of Quayside. Sidewalk Labs won the right to develop a Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP) in late 2017. That document, which still hasn’t been published, will need to be evaluated and, ultimately, approved by a range of parties including Waterfront Toronto — a publicly funded organization — the Canadian government and, of course, the public. There’s no guarantee that any of these parties will say yes, either. Sidewalk Labs has faced a wealth of opposition from resident groups such as #BlockSidewalk who fear the project will only benefit Silicon Valley.

The idea behind Sidewalk Labs’ icons is pretty simple. The company wants to create an image-based language that can quickly convey information to people the same way that street and traffic signs do. Icons on the signs would show if cameras or other devices are capturing video, images, audio or other information. Additionally, Sidewalk Labs plans to color-code the signs to highlight how the information is used. Yellow signs mean data being collected is identifiable while blue means it is de-identified before being used. Other colors could be introduced to convey any additional details.

The signs would also include a QR code that would display additional information about the data collection process in a given area. Citizens could scan the code and be presented with a detailed explanation of who is collecting data, the exact information they are sucking up from passersby and what they intend to use it for. It would also show how long the data is retained by the collector and how it is stored.

For Now, Sidewalk Labs’ signs are just a concept. The first draft has been made publicly available on GitHub, and the company is planning to make tweaks over time. The signage in its current format will get a test run at the Sidewalk Labs offices in Toronto, and digital marketing company Soofa has agreed to demo the icons in a number of cities where it operates.

The draft version of the MIDP is yet to materialize. And for many, it’s been an agonizing wait. Waterfront Toronto, a public steward created by the Canadian government, announced its search for an innovation and funding partner back in March 2017. Sidewalk Labs put its name forward with a beautiful “vision” document that suggested, among other head-turning ideas, buildings made from timber, a flexible thermal grid and subterranean tunnels for deliveries and garbage disposal. The company won the bid in October and has spent the past 18 months researching those ideas, consulting with experts and gathering public feedback.

Toronto citizens, unsurprisingly, have a lot of questions. Sidewalk Labs has shared some information about its evolving work through a mixture of live events, blog posts, PDF presentations and podcasts. It hasn’t detailed everything, however, because the MIDP is still incomplete and many of its ideas are subject to change. The company is usually quick to stress that the work being shared is “the most current perspective” held by its team.

Residents want a deeper understanding of Quayside though. Many have demanded greater transparency and, in the absence of detail, have started to fear the worst possible outcome: a neighborhood that benefits the bottom line of Silicon Valley and other technology giants rather than its inhabitants. These concerns are understandable. Alphabet is, after all, the parent company of Google, a technological Goliath known for tracking and monetizing its users’ personal information. Sidewalk Labs has always stressed that it’s effectively, or spiritually, independent and has no plans to use Quayside as a way to hoover up personal data. Still, people worry.

On Tuesday, a group of concerned citizens launched #BlockSidewalk, a campaign dedicated to informing the public “what the project is, and why it should be reset.” Julie Beddoes, a waterfront resident and #BlockSidewalk supporter, told reporters at city hall, “In Toronto, [Sidewalk Labs] is aiming to take over the functions of government — do we really need a coup d’état to get transit and nice paving stones?”

Bianca Wylie, the campaign chair, added in a press release, “After 17 months of paying close attention to the deal, #BlockSidewalk knows this project should have ended a long time ago. And while we don’t have the $11 million communications budget that they have, we have resident and organizing capacity, and a lot of global support, to bring the public up to speed on what has happened so far and what’s at stake.”

“It’s almost like a 50-sided Rubik’s Cube.”

Sidewalk Labs is in a tough spot. It wants to be transparent and has engaged with the public through live talks, roundtables, neighborhood meetings, a 36-member reference panel, pop-up events and the occasional prototype demonstration. It’s trying to listen and, crucially, develop a plan that keeps all stakeholders happy. That includes local residents, Waterfront Toronto, local politicians, the federal government and its corporate owners in San Francisco.

“It’s almost like a 50-sided Rubik’s Cube,” Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, said during a session with Canada’s Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) on Tuesday. “Trying to put all of these different pieces together in a way that’s responsive to all of the literally thousands of comments that we’ve received not just from government officials but from the public, [and] that is truly respectful of the objectives of Waterfront Toronto, as well as Canadian values.”

Sidewalk Labs has taken its time putting the MIDP together. And that makes sense: The company has one shot of winning the public’s and Canadian government’s approval. If the plan is thrown out, Sidewalk Labs will walk away from Toronto with nothing. Waterfront Toronto has been using this fact to reassure people who are concerned about Sidewalk Labs and how the project has been developing. “If the MIDP from Sidewalk Labs does not deliver on the priorities that we have set out for Quayside, in a manner that is in the public interest, then the proposed plan will not be implemented,” the organization said in a blog post.

Technically, Sidewalk Labs has until September to publish its MIDP and gain approval from Waterfront Toronto. Waiting that long exposes the company to fresh leaks and resignations, however, that damage public trust and fuel protest movements such as #BlockSidewalk.

Sidewalk Labs has until September to publish its MIDP and gain approval from Waterfront Toronto.

Last October, for instance, Saadia Muzaffar announced that she was stepping down from Waterfront Toronto’s Digital Strategy Advisory Panel. “Waterfront Toronto’s apathy and utter lack of leadership regarding shaky public trust and social license has been astounding,” the author and founder of TechGirls Canada said in her resignation letter.

Later that month, Sidewalk Labs explained its vision for an independent trust that would analyze, approve and monitor all forms of data collection in Quayside. Dr. Ann Cavoukian, a privacy expert and consultant for Sidewalk Labs, shortly resigned over the proposal. She wanted all data collection to be anonymized or “de-identified” at the source, protecting the privacy of citizens. Sidewalk Labs could promise this for its own applications, but it couldn’t force other companies, because the trust and its approval process would, by design, be independent.

Two months ago, The Star obtained internal documents that explained how Sidewalk Labs could generate revenue from the project. Instead of collecting user data, the company wanted an appropriate slice of property taxes and development fees. The presentation also hinted at a broader redevelopment plan beyond Quayside. Sidewalk Labs confirmed the documents were authentic and explained some of its thinking.

“We don’t think that 12 acres on Quayside has the scale to actually have the impact on affordability and economic opportunity and transit that everyone aspires to,” Doctoroff told The Star. “We’re going to be spending a lot of money in advancing the infrastructure. And where we do that and there are new property tax revenues or developer charges, we only want to get paid back a reasonable return for our investment in that infrastructure.”

By that point, though, the damage had already been done.

Sidewalk Labs went further with a lengthy blog post that linked to the presentation. By that point, though, the damage had already been done: People had discovered a key piece of information through the press rather than the company, Waterfront Toronto or another official source. It reaffirmed the idea that Sidewalk Labs was holding back in public forums.

At the ETHI meeting yesterday, Peter Kent, a member of the Canadian Parliament, said he was hopeful and “fascinated” by the Quayside project when it was first announced. Subsequent leaks and resignations, however, had led him “in some ways to agree” with the fiery remarks made by Jim Balsillie, the former chairman and co-CEO of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, last year. “Waterfront Toronto continues to weaponize ambiguity while making irreversible decisions that will have major negative effects on all Canadians,” Balsillie wrote in a seething op-ed for The Globe and Mail. “Is this how we want our cities and the future of our country managed?”

In response, Doctoroff said he was confident that the MIDP would win back his trust. “Any project that seeks to break new ground, and particularly, is committed to reaching out and getting people’s feedback before everything is clear, is going to be a natural recipient of concern and criticisms,” Doctoroff said. “And, to be perfectly honest, we welcome the concern and criticism because we believe very strongly that it makes us smarter and more sensitive, and makes the plans ultimately better.”

He added, “I do believe that what we’re going to come back with, hopefully, is going to reignite that excitement you [once] had.”

The company is betting everything, in short, on a single document. One chance to persuade everyone, including members of #BlockSidewalk, that it has a plan worth backing.

No pressure.