Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Google parent-company Alphabet Inc, on Monday officially unveiled its plan for a massive technology-driven neighborhood on Toronto's waterfront that it hopes will become a blueprint for the future, but which has already generated controversy.
The 1,500-page master plan covers a 4.8 hectare parcel on the eastern shore of the city's harbour. The Lake Ontario site would merge sustainable design with new technologies, such as trash-picking robots, sensors that measure pedestrians' gait, sidewalks that melt snow and street-side parking that can be pre-booked.