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Sidewalk Labs was chosen in October based on a proposal that included autonomous vehicles, a thermal grid that does not use fossil fuels, low-cost modular buildings with flexible uses, and robotic delivery and waste-management systems. The company settled on Toronto after searching for sites across North America, Europe and Australia to create a smart city.

A development plan is expected to be approved by the Sidewalk and Waterfront Toronto boards by the end of 2018, and the first residents could move in as early as 2022, CEO Dan Doctoroff said in an interview.

“Quayside will be a prototype for a broader opportunity,” Doctoroff said. “What we’re trying to do, no one has really succeeded in doing. Thus far, I’ve been thrilled with the way things have gone … but I’m not sanguine about the challenges.”

Other smart city projects have largely failed because of budgets, the involvement of too many parties, and the use of public resources on development with no immediate benefits for the broader population.

Corporate access to personal information is a growing concern. Sidewalk Labs has faced growing scrutiny over its plans to put sensors and cameras all over Quayside.

Doctoroff said Sidewalk Labs would destroy non-essential information, only retain data that would improve the quality of life, and not sell them to advertisers. Third parties must adopt privacy policies developed for the plan, he added.

Most of the technology will be sourced from several other companies, Doctoroff said. “It’s possible we might invest in (some of) them to encourage them or potentially to fund some of those things, but that will be a smaller percentage.”