The realignment of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, continues as the former robotics division has joined the X division. The situation is a bit of a mess at the moment, as it seems that the decision was made as a last resort. Alphabet had been looking for someone to take over the robotics division, but failed to find a suitable candidate in time.
Google’s robotics division was founded by Andy Rubin, who set about acquiring several big name companies to get the ball rolling. Several of these names were already working with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create robots capable of serving on the battlefield, including Boston Dynamics and Schaft.
Unfortunately, Rubin departed from Google to found his own startup; and left the collection of companies without a clear direction. Alphabet had been trying to spin them off into their own company – as it had been doing with the other Google components – but it became clear that nobody wanted to take over and lead the collective.
Due to this, the robotics division will now be part of the X group; and will have to find a way to get all those teams to work together. The various groups within the robotics divisions were all working on substantially different projects, like Boston Dynamics’ Big Dog quadrupedal transportbot and Schaft’s humanoid creation.
What the new collective decides to work on first will definitely be something to behold. Alphabet has collected some of the best robotics experts on the planet in a single place, and these people are bound to be able to invent the future. Provided they can figure out what everyone is supposed to be working on in the first place.
[Source: The New York Times]
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