Self-driving cars replacing privately owned vehicles. High-tech sensors and cameras collecting data to improve quality of life. Parks within 100 metres for all residents to use 12 months a year.

These are just a few ideas proposed by Daniel Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, the city-building arm of Google set to develop Quayside, a 4.8-hectare (12 acres) “smart city” on Toronto’s eastern waterfront and a starting point for his plan to expand the company’s footprint to almost 325 hectares (800 acres) of the Port Lands.

Waterfront Toronto selected Sidewalk Labs to develop Quayside in October. Doctoroff and Will Flessig, the CEO of Waterfront Toronto, discussed their plans in a meeting Wednesday with the Star’s editorial board.

“We’re at the dawn of a fourth revolution . . . and that is what I would call the digital-networked revolution,” said Doctoroff, former deputy mayor of New York when billionaire mogul Michael Bloomberg ran the Big Apple.

“We can come up with something so powerful that it helps to establish Toronto as the global hub . . . in global urban innovation.”

Doctoroff touted self-driving vehicles as a major aspect of the prospective district.

“The streets will be narrower and the streets will be safer,” he said, adding that autonomous cars would “eliminate much of the infrastructure that clutters up a street” like traffic lights, signs and road markings.

Asked about banning human-driven cars within Quayside, he said “that would be something to be discussed.”

He also plans to integrate public infrastructure, like the TTC, and cut the transportation costs of residents in half.

Being a “smart city,” Quayside would use sensors and cameras to collect data on the environment, noise levels and traffic — meant to improve quality of life, according to Doctoroff.

One application of this technology would be using cameras to analyze traffic flows to improve commutes in the future.

Addressing privacy concerns, Doctoroff said they would implement “privacy by design” into their technology to ensure that citizens feel secure.

The data itself will be open for people to use and access. Doctoroff and Flessig said they are not yet sure about who will be responsible for the data, but entertained the idea of a “data trust,” overseen by a board independent of Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto.

Quayside can solve a lot of the city’s issues like affordable housing, Flessig said.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people who work in the core, and they can’t afford to live there,” said Flessig, who hopes to see development begin in about three years.

A portion of housing units in Quayside will be “affordable,” subsidized homes that would allow Quayside’s population to “reflect the socioeconomic diversity” of the city, according to Micah Lasher, the head of external affairs at Sidewalk Labs.

Amid questions over who will benefit from the development of public waterfront land, the partners released a four-page summary of their agreement, with “commercially sensitive” information reviewed.

Both Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto had been tight-lipped about their plans in recent weeks, but Doctoroff said they are now “ready to be really open with people.” The executives believe that transparency will be key to getting citizens on board with the project.

“We’re trying to do something that’s new and different, we understand the angst and excitement and issues that raises,” Doctoroff said. “The only way to get people comfortable is to be open.”

They said they will also prioritize listening to the public to hear their thoughts about the project. That process started Wednesday night, at a town hall at the St. Lawrence Centre where hundreds of Torontonians packed a theatre for the launch of public consultations on the waterfront proposal.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Doctoroff told the enthusiastic-sounding crowd that the main aim will be “affordability.”

Outside, protesters from housing advocate ACORN chanted “Stop the war on the poor, make the rich pay.”

With files from David RiderEditor’s note: This story has been updated from a previous version to clarify that the data collected in Quayside will be on the environment, noise levels and traffic.