In a blog post on the company's moribund social network, Google +, Page said Google was launching Sidewalk Labs, a new company that "will focus on improving city life for everyone by developing and incubating urban technologies to address issues like cost of living, efficient transportation and energy usage."
Sidewalk Labs will be led by Dan Doctoroff, the former CEO of Bloomberg and a former deputy mayor of economic development and rebuilding for New York City.
"Every time I talk with Dan I feel an amazing sense of opportunity because of all the ways technology can help transform cities to be more livable, flexible and vibrant," Page wrote. He compared Sidewalk Labs to Calico, the well-financed life sciences company Google launched in 2013, and to Google X, its factory of "moonshots" like self-driving cars and a fleet of high-altitude balloons for Internet service. But while both those endeavors have significant financial backing, Page called Sidewalk Labs a "relatively modest investment."
In a press release on its own site, Sidewalk Labs, which is based in New York, said:
While there are apps to tell people about traffic conditions, or the prices of available apartments, the biggest challenges that cities face -- such as making transportation more efficient and lowering the cost of living, reducing energy usage and helping government operate more efficiently have, so far, been more difficult to address. Sidewalk Labs will develop new products, platforms and partnerships to make progress in these areas.
"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," Doctoroff wrote in the press release. "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."
Page credited Googler Adrian Aoun with bringing Doctoroff on board. Aoun, an entrepreneur who sold his last company, Wavii, to Google, has been working on special projects at the company. On his Facebook page, Aoun wrote: "I'm proud to announce a project I've been working on, Sidewalk Labs, with my good friend Dan Doctoroff!"
I've reached out to Sidewalk Labs for more information. Will update if and when I hear more. In the meantime, The New York Times has more details in a story that included an interview with Doctoroff.
