Google X, stylized as Google[x], is a semi-secret facility run by Google dedicated to making
major technological advancements. It is located about a half mile from Google's corporate
headquarters, the Googleplex, in Mountain View, California. Work at the lab is overseen
by Sergey Brin, one of Google's co-founders, while scientist and entrepreneur Astro Teller
directs day-to-day activities. Teller says that they aim to improve technologies by a
factor of 10, and to develop "science fiction-sounding solutions." The lab began in 2010 with the
development of a self-driving car.
Projects There are eight projects being developed at
Google X. Projects that have been revealed are Google's self-driving car, Google Glass
eyewear that includes a screen and camera, a wind energy company called Makani Power,
Google Contact Lenses that monitor blood glucose levels, Project Loon, which provides internet
service via balloons in the stratosphere, an artificial neural network for speech recognition
and computer vision; and the web of things. Projects that Google X has considered and
rejected include a space elevator, which was deemed to be currently unfeasible; a hoverboard,
which was determined to be too costly relative to the societal benefits; a user-safe jetpack,
which was thought to be too loud and energy-wasting; and teleportation, which was found to violate
the laws of physics. While Google X projects are often referred
to as "moonshots" within the company, not all so-described moonshots are part of Google
X. For example, Calico, Google's life extension project, is considered a moonshot but is not
a part of Google X. The same is true of Google's project to build robots for businesses.
In October 2013, the existence of four Google barges was revealed, with the vessels registered
under the dummy corporation By And Large. Two of the barges have a superstructure whose
construction has been kept under the utmost secrecy, while speculations indicate they
could be used as marketing for, and stores for, Google Glass.
Project Glass Project Glass is a research and development
program by Google to develop an augmented reality head-mounted display. The intended
purpose of Project Glass products would be the hands-free displaying of information currently
available to most smartphone users, and allowing for interaction with the Internet via natural
language voice commands. Google driverless car
The Google driverless car is a project by Google that involves developing technology
for driverless cars. The project is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun,
director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street
View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005
DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of
Defense. The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including
Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski, who had worked on the DARPA Grand
and Urban Challenges. The U.S. state of Nevada passed a law in June
2011 concerning the operation of driverless cars in Nevada. Google had been lobbying for
driverless car laws. The license was issued to a Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental
driver-less technology. In August 2012, the team announced that they have completed over
300,000 autonomous-driving miles accident-free, typically have about a dozen cars on the road
at any given time, and are starting to test them with single drivers instead of in pairs.
Project Loon Project Loon is a project that aims to bring
internet access to everyone by creating an internet network of balloons flying through
the stratosphere. Google Contact Lens
Google Contact Lens were announced on January 16, 2014 with the goal of allowing diabetics
to continually check their glucose levels using a non-intrusive method.
Subsidiaries On 23 May 2013 Google X acquired Makani Power,
a US company which develops tethered wings/kites with mounted wind turbines for low cost renewable
energy generation. Google X acquired product design firm Gecko
Design in August 2014. Campus
A reporter from Bloomberg Businessweek visited the site in 2013 and described it as "ordinary
two-­story red-brick buildings about a half-mile from Google’s main campus. There's a burbling
fountain out front and rows of company-issued bikes, which employees use to shuttle to the
main campus." See also
Google Labs Skunkworks project
References