Sidewalk Labs Shows off New Weather-Beating Tech
Emily Pollock posted on March 07, 2019 |
Sidewalk’s Jesse Shapins shows off the project’s new heated and lighted hexagonal pavement tiles, which are one of the innovations that the company hopes will make outdoor life in Toronto more pleasant during the winter. (Image courtesy of The Canadian Press/Tijana Martin.)
Urban innovation company Sidewalk Labs has been facing controversy over its Toronto Quayside project. So, on March 2, the company held an open house featuring tech that nobody could object to: a set of innovations designed to help mitigate the city’s gloomy winters.
Sidewalk, a sister company to Google, has been planning a “smart neighborhood” east of Toronto’s downtown core for two years. The company has been famously tight-lipped about its plans, but it recently showcased some of its plans for the neighborhood outside of its headquarters.
The company’s pitch is that, while Toronto has a thriving patio culture, it’s only possible to comfortably sit outside for about a third of the year. Sidewalk Labs wants to extend that time with inventions that will help shield people from inclement weather.
One of its weather solutions is something it calls a “building raincoat”:
a plastic film awning that can be extended to cover the sidewalk from the elements if necessary. According to the Sidewalk team, it’s made of an innovative material called Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene, which has never been…