Alphabet’s Smart City Unit Spins Off Data Unit

Alphabet Inc.’s Sidewalk Labs business, which specializes in smart city technologies, has spun off its Replica data-gathering tool as a separate business.

Replica says its modeling tool uses anonymized smartphone data to give public agencies a comprehensive picture of how, when and why people travel. Movement models are integrated with census demographic data to create a broad data set that city planners and third-party groups can use to develop more efficient and sustainable land use and transit systems.

Privacy groups have criticized the tool for being too invasive. But Replica claims all personal information is scrubbed during the process.

Replica, which already is working with Kansas City, Portland, Chicago and Sacramento, plans to expand to more cities later this year. Initial work focused on meeting with agencies around the world to learn more about the data, processes and other tools they used.