Google has today announced a new partnership, with former CEO of Bloomberg LP and Deputy Mayor of Economic Development and Rebuilding for the City of New York Dan Doctoroff, called Sidewalk Labs, a new venture which aims to ‘improve life in cities for everyone through the application of technology to solve urban problems’.
In a press release, Mr Doctoroff has spoken of the growing global population density, which is expected to double within cities by 2050, in light of this pressure on resources, Google and Mr Doctoroff have formed Sidewalk Labs to look at innovations that can be made with regards to cost of living, efficient transportation and energy usage. Sidewalk Labs is aiming to ‘foster the development of technology products, platforms and infrastructure that help improve life in cities around the world’.
Google CEO Larry Page has also spoken about the announcement on his Google+ page speaking of the partnership which he hopes will ‘really improve people’s lives’. Larry sees this as an extension of the Google X or Calico projects that Google has setup, but could also be seen as another way that Google is attempting to better the whole as they are through their Google.org arm.
The full release is available on the sidewalkinc.com website, and if you’re interested you can follow the project on the usual social media channels.
