Google, the search AI company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, has brought aboard Dan Doctoroff, who was not universally loved in New York City when serving as the Balbo to Bloomberg’s Mussolini, as the leader of Sidewalk Labs, which aims to reimagine and reorganize urban areas with technology. Interesting that Google recently has hired not only Doctoroff but also Ray Kurzweil, both of whom are Methuselah-esque compared to the average Silicon Valley employee. Perhaps it’s a new market inefficiency? Or maybe when you’re immortal like Kurzweil, 67 years old is toddler age?
From Miguel Helft at Forbes:
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!”•
