Google has launched Sidewalk Labs, a new company that will try to make living in the city easier by focusing on urban technologies to address issues like cost of living, efficient transportation and energy usage. Google CEO Larry Page made the announcement on his official Google Plus Page and said that while SideWalks is very "different from Google's core business," he hopes that this is one area where they can "really improve people’s lives, similar to Google[x] and Calico." "Making long-term, 10X bets like this is hard for most companies to do, but Sergey and I have always believed that it’s important. And as more and more people around the world live, work and settle in cities, the opportunities for improving our urban environments are endless," he wrote. The company will be headed by Dan Doctoroff, the former CEO of Bloomberg LP and Deputy Mayor of Economic Development and Rebuilding for the City of New York. Google says that while apps now warn people about traffic or even apartment pricing, the bigger challenges lie in "making transportation more efficient and lowering the cost of living, reducing energy usage, etc" which have been harder to address. In a press statement, Dan Doctoroff, the new CEO for Sidewalks Lab, said, "We are at the beginning of a historic transformation in cities. 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. 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."
