Sidewalk thinks smart cities should be built from the ground up keeping technological innovations in mind.

Although NY’s idea of having internet access on its city streets is a step in the right direction, Google’s sister concern, Sidewalk Labs has given the concept a whole new meaning with its vision of transforming a neighbourhood into their smarter avatar.

The Wall Street Journal has reported citing sources who are familiar with the matter at hand that Sidewalk is about to propose to Google’s holding company, Alphabet, that it should design city districts keeping technological advances in mind.

Sidewalk wants to revamp declining areas in a city with technological innovations starting from smart grids to autonomous self-driving cars. It hopes to get waivers from city regulators so that it can start experiments with basic necessities such as street design.

If Alphabet were to give the project a go-ahead in the “coming weeks,” it still does not ensure that its project will get the all-clear: city development typically revolves around billions of dollars, this will necessarily mean, Sidewalk will have to partner with the government and other financial institutions to bankroll its project, assuming that they are willing to trust the fate of an entire district in the hands of a private company.

If Sidewalk can manage to get out of this gauntlet, residents of the dump they wish to transform could see a smart city rise from the ground up without waiting for decades to do so. If it works it could hasten the widespread adoption of newer technologies.