A smart city project started by Google’s sister firm Sidewalk Labs to track mobility patterns in the US city of Portland, Oregon has been shelved.

Last year, Sidewalk also ditched an ambitious project to build a digital city in Toronto, following controversy about the scale of its plans.

Portland confirmed the project would no longer go ahead.

Sidewalk said the scheme had most recently been in the hands of a spin-off company, Replica.

Replica told the BBC it was unwilling to share data to the level of detail requested by the city…

The plan was to use the data to make policy decisions about where to build bike lanes, how and when to repair roads and to make sure bus services were efficient and reaching all communities.

But Fast Company reported there were concerns about a lack of transparency around how the technology worked.

And RedTailMedia, which broke the news that the project had been ditched, referred to “data disputes and damaged trust”.
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