The Future Smart-City; Quayside, Toronto

Alphabet Sidewalk Labs, Google’s parent company, is collaborating with the Canadian government on a high-tech project that would transform Waterfront Toronto’s dock and industrial land into the future smart-city; Quayside.  The Wall Street Journal reported that the 12-acre development is expected to cost $1 billion dollars. Alphabet Sidewalk Labs plans for Quayside to have autonomous cars, high-speed internet, robots doing work such as mail delivery underground, and embedded sensors that would track energy usage.  The network of sensors would also gather data on everything from air quality to noise levels.  According to Sidewalk Labs, some of the benefits of the Quayside neighborhood would be “sustainability, affordability, mobility, and economic opportunity.”  The preliminary illustrations of the neighborhood include bike-share systems, apartment housing, bus lines, and parks.  The planned self-driving shuttles could form a transit system that doesn’t rely on private cars, and the neighborhood’s renewable energy system could act as a blueprint for other locations. Check it out for yourself on YouTube and see if Quayside will be the model city of the future.