If you’re anything like me and live in the more rural areas of this great land of ours, then you know how difficult it is to get decent Internet at home.

The only way to currently get Internet outside of urban areas is via satellite, which can be annoyingly slow, temperamental, inconvenient, and pricey.

Even so, our friends over at Google are cooking up something new and exciting for us fast Internet-deprived rural dwellers.

X, a division of Google’s parent company Alphabet, is pulling the plug on its solar-powered drone program, reassigning the members of the Titan Aerospace team to Project Loon, which makes high-altitude balloons for delivering Internet to the most remote areas of the world from the sky.

Prior to its acquisition in 2014, Titan Aerospace was a startup manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles, more specifically solar-powered drones, working with the FAA to obtain airspace for flight testing within the National Airspace System.

Former Eclipse Aviation founder and CEO Vern Raburn was tasked with heading Google’s solar-powered drone program.

When Flying Magazine met with Raburn a few years ago at the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, he was quite bullish on Titan Aerospace, saying Google was pumping lots of capital into its research endeavors and giving it full leeway to innovate.

In early 2015, however, Titan crashed its prototype into the New Mexico desert four minutes after takeoff, ultimately sealing the fate of the Titan drone program.

Raburn hasn’t spoken publicly about Titan Aerospace at all this year. It appears Google no longer has the stomach to finance larger exploratory research projects like the ones Raburn had in mind.

And from this, Project Loon and research for high-altitude Internet balloons has come about.

“Titan was brought into X in late 2015. We ended our exploration of high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles for Internet access shortly after,” said Jacquelyn Miller, a representative for Alphabet’s research arm X. “By comparison, at this stage the economics and technical feasibility of Project Loon present a much more promising way to connect rural and remote parts of the world. Many people from the Titan team are now using their expertise as part of other high flying projects at X, including Loon and Project Wing.”

Basically, Titan Aerospace has shifted its perspective from drones to balloons, but its purpose and mission remain the same.

Project Loon has high hopes of delivering on its promises and granting access to those located in the more rural and remote parts of the world with Internet.

“Pulling the plug” just sounds so morose. They’ve simply diversified to stay on track.

However, there is another equally awesome Google acquisition that may actually be getting its plug pulled: Boston Dynamics.

It is famously known for its advanced robots with remarkable behavior: mobility, agility, dexterity, and speed.

Another Alphabet subsidiary, Boston Dynamics has nothing to prove when it comes to producing the stuff of nightmares. Previous iterations of company prototypes have been kicked over by humans, only to stand right back up again.

A recently released YouTube video of its latest robot, Handle, is said to have “spoiled the soup” when it comes to the already strained relationship between Boston Dynamics and Google.

The new bot features both legs and wheels, which makes it far more efficient than a purely legged robot.

A special cocktail of hardware and software allows Handle to balance itself and throw its weight around, even when moving at high speeds and rotating rapidly on its wheels.

It stands over six feet tall and can jump vertically over four-foot-tall objects, spin around while using its “arms” for balance, and travel approximately nine miles per hour.

“There’s excitement from the tech press, but we’re also starting to see some negative threads about it being terrifying, ready to take humans’ jobs,” stated Courtney Hohne, a director of communications at Google and the spokeswoman for Google X.

Hohne asked her colleagues at Google to distance themselves from the latest Handle video, writing, “We don’t want to trigger a whole separate media cycle about where BD really is at Google.”

Where Boston Dynamics fits into Google’s vision has been an issue for quite some time now; it’s actually why Google is selling off BD and the eight other companies that comprise the entirety of Google’s robotics division.

Marc Raibert founded BD in 1992. It was born out of MIT’s Leg Lab (which also happens to have been founded by Raibert in 1986), which specifically designs, studies, and builds legged robots.

BD’s robots are all advanced quadrupeds or bipeds that boast unbelievable skill in mobility and maneuverability. In addition to Handle, there is Spot the robot dog, designed to work with the Marines, Atlas the humanoid that can walk in snow, and the Cheetah robot, which can run faster than Usain Bolt.

Boston Dynamics was acquired in 2014 along with eight other robotics companies. Andy Rubin, the co-founder of Android, was set to oversee all the newly acquired companies as a newly formed division called Replicant.

“The impression I got was Rubin’s robotic companies were sort of allowed to get some leash,” a former employee told Tech Insider. The idea was to see what kinds of ideas and innovations the robotics companies came up with and let that guide Google’s eventual robotics vision.

But in October 2014, less than a year after Replicant was formed, Rubin left the company.

After his departure, the robotics group was left without leadership, as there was no one with the same research and robotics experience as Rubin.

In 2015, Google attempted to regain control over its robotics division to learn what it was working on and how it could be adopted into a more consumer-friendly product.

It still remains unclear as to what exactly Google is looking for in a consumer-friendly product. One former employee had mentioned that Google wanted an easy-to-use robot that could help with basic tasks around the house or office.

An idea was pitched to ditch the legs in favor of wheels, which defies BD’s fundamental design style. Boston Dynamics was not too happy about this idea at all.

Another former employee noted that a factory robot isn’t out of the question, which is why one of the latest humanoid robot, Atlas, can be seen stacking heavy boxes in a video.

But this circles back to fearful consumers who are not keen on the idea, thinking the robots will eventually take over human jobs.

BD began resisting the push to create a consumer robot and continued to pursue its own research instead of going in the direction Google wanted. This created even more distance between them.

“At the end of the day what I saw was a sense of us and them instead of a we — we weren’t part of Google, we were sort of a separate thing,” stated another former employee.

So it has come to an end. Boston Dynamics and the rest of team Replicant are up for sale by Google.

According to rumors, Google is in negotiations with Toyota Research Institute to sell its robotics division, a source familiar with the matter informer Tech Insider. A price has not yet been disclosed.

Many of Replicant’s leading minds have left the company to join the Toyota Research Institute team. All breakups are hard, but this impending deal has been referred to as a “friendly buyout.”

The classic “it’s not you, it’s me, but we can still be friends” routine in play here.

In my opinion, two of the best and most useful Google acquisitions are without a doubt YouTube and Waze.

YouTube is a giant that needs no introduction. It was launched in 2005 and quickly became to go-to place for everything video sharing, from cat videos to first looks at BD robot prototypes.

Google scooped up the company just over a year after its launch for a meager $1.65 billion, and it has transformed into the second-largest search engine in the world, only behind Google itself.

GPS-navigation app Waze, on the other hand, saved me big time on my commute to work this morning. With downpours in the city come lots of accidents and traffic congestion during rush hour.

Its revolutionary concept allows app users to update roads alongside its software.

Approximately one-third of Waze users are constantly updating information about slowdowns, speed traps, road closures, and even debris in the road, allowing Waze to update suggested routes in real time. Users can even edit the maps directly to make the experience more accurate for everyone.

This is the heavily integrated and involved culture that is meant to help others that Google wants integrated into its arsenal of technology.

Google acquired Waze in 2013. The purchase price has not been disclosed but rumors have indicated anywhere from $966 million to $1.3 billion.

Waze also has many features that Google Maps lacks, like the option to report accidents, police activity, speed cameras, and blocked roads.

Also, by acquiring the company, it keeps it out of reach of competitors like Facebook and Apple.

The number of companies that have been acquired by Google is actually quite staggering. Each holding offers something unique to its users and customers.

The truth is, Google has a ton of sweet acquisitions. Check them out.

That’s all for now.

Until next time,

John Peterson
Pro Trader Today