It was supposed to be a sprawling “smart city” of tomorrow, with sensors tracking the speed of people crossing the streets and robots that could double as trash collectors.
But the overhaul of Toronto’s eastern waterfront envisioned by a sibling company of Google, a plan that raised a chorus of privacy concerns, was severely scaled back on Thursday. Waterfront Toronto, the government agency responsible for development of the area, voted unanimously to limit the ambitions of the company, Sidewalk Labs, from its original 190-acre plan to 12 acres.