Google smart-city spinoff folding over founder’s health
By MATT O’BRIEN
AP Technology Writer
Google parent company Alphabet is folding one of its subsidiaries back into Google as the startup’s founder steps down to confront a neurological disease. Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff said Thursday he’s leaving the company focused on urban planning technology because he “very likely” has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Sidewalk Labs was one of a hodgepodge of projects to spin off from Google when the tech giant put itself under a new holding company, Alphabet, in 2015. It is best known for its abandoned project to transform Toronto’s waterfront into a wired smart city.