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X Development

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For other businesses with similar names, see X (disambiguation) § Companies.

X Development LLC
X
FormerlyGoogle X (2010–2015)
Company typeDivision
IndustryResearch and development
FoundedJanuary 2010; 14 years ago (2010-01)
Founders
Headquarters
Mountain View, California
,
United States
Key people
Astro Teller (CEO)
Products
Parent
Subsidiaries
Subsidiaries
  • SCHAFT
  • Industrial Perception
  • Redwood Robotics
  • Meka Robotics
  • Holomni
  • Bot & Dolly
  • Autofuss
  • Jetpac
  • Gecko Design
  • Flutter
  • DNNresearch
Websitex.company

X Development LLC,[2][3][4] doing business as X (formerly Google X),[1] is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010.[5][6] X has its headquarters about a mile and a half from Alphabet's corporate headquarters, the Googleplex, in Mountain View, California.[7][8]

X's mission is to invent and launch "moonshot" technologies that aim to make the world a radically better place.[9] A moonshot is defined by X as the intersection of a big problem, a radical solution, and breakthrough technology.[10] Work at X is overseen by entrepreneur scientist Astro Teller, as CEO and "Captain of Moonshots".[11][12][13] The lab started with the development of Google's self-driving car.[13]

Active projects

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Taara

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The purpose of Taara is to expand global access to quick, affordable internet connections with beams of light. After a successful use of free-space optical communication (FSOC) as a part of Project Loon,[14] X decided to conduct more tests called Taara[15] in rural areas of India.[16] The technology uses light beams that are developed by X's office in Visakhapatnam.[17] As of December 2017, X had set up 2,000 units in India, through a partnership with Andhra Pradesh State FiberNet Limited.[18]

Chorus

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Chorus is a project that aims to improve the supply chain through sensors, software, and machine learning tools. The team had been working on the project for 3.5 years before it was revealed in March 2022.[19]

Graduated projects

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Glass

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Main article: Google Glass
Google Glass with black frames for prescription lenses

Project Glass is a research and development program by Google to develop an augmented reality head-mounted display (HMD).[20] The intended purpose of Project Glass products is hands-free display of information currently available to most smartphone users,[21] and interaction with the Internet via natural language voice commands.[22] Google Glass has ended production as of March 15, 2023.[23]

Waymo

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Main article: Waymo
A Waymo self-driving car on the road in Mountain View

Waymo was a Google project that involved developing technology for driverless cars. In December 2016, Google transitioned the project into a new company called Waymo, housed under Google's parent company, Alphabet. The project was 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 a US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.[24] 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.[24]

Loon

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A Project Loon research balloon
Main article: Loon (company)

Project Loon was a project of X that aimed to bring internet access to everyone by creating an internet network of balloons flying through the stratosphere. It uses wireless routers in balloons that are above the weather and plans to give access to the internet to those who can't reach it or are in need of help.[25] In July 2018, Loon graduated from X and was made a subsidiary of Alphabet.[26] In January 2021, it was announced that the company would be shut down.[27][28][29]

Wing

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Main article: Wing (company)

Project Wing was a project of X that aimed to rapidly deliver products across a city by using flying vehicles, similar to the Amazon Prime Air concept.[30] It began development in secret around 2012, with full-scale testing being carried out in Australia. In 2014, the project was publicly announced, at the same time that it was spun off to a separate company, Wing.

The flying vehicle takes off vertically, then rotates to a horizontal position for flying around. For delivery, it hovers and winches packages down to the ground. At the end of the tether is a small bundle of electronics which detects that the package has hit the ground, detaches from the delivery, and is pulled back up into the body of the vehicle. Dropping the cargo or landing were found to be unfeasible, as users compromised the safety.[31]

Malta

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Malta was started in July 2017 to develop renewable energy storage systems by utilizing tanks of molten salt.[32] The system works by transforming electrical energy to heat energy for storage, based on research by Robert B. Laughlin.[33] Malta Inc. graduated from X in December 2018 with plans to develop a large-scale test of the technology for future commercial applications.[34]

Dandelion

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Main article: Dandelion Energy

Dandelion was spun out as a company not under the Alphabet umbrella, aiming to sell geothermal energy systems to consumers.[35]

Makani

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Main article: Makani (company)

Makani was a project that was acquired by X in May 2013 designed to produce wind energy using kites.[36] The T-shaped planes are 85 feet wide and contain 8 turbines tethered to the ground.[37] Compared to wind turbines, Makani's kites require 90% less material.[38] In December 2016, Makani's kite became the first energy kite in the world to generate electricity.[39] In February 2019, Makani was separated from X and became a subsidiary of Alphabet.[40]

In February 2020, Alphabet shut down Makani. The company said "Despite strong technical progress, the road to commercialization is longer and riskier than hoped."[41] In September 2020, Makani released the Energy Kite Collection — a three-part report and accompanying collection of open source code repositories, flight logs and technical videos from the project. It also released Pulling Power from the Sky: The Story of Makani, a documentary on the project, and made a non-assertion pledge on its patent portfolio, allowing anyone to use its patents without fear of legal reprisal.[42][43]

Intrinsic

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In July 2021, it was announced that a new company called Intrinsic would be spun out of X.[44] The team had been developing software for industrial robots at X for more than five years. The new company is led by Wendy Tan White as CEO.[45]

Mineral

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In January 2023, it was announced that a new company called Mineral has been spun out of X. The team had been working on sensors, data, and machine learning to scale sustainable agriculture globally for more than 5 years. The new company is led by Elliott Grant as CEO.

Others

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  • The Google Contact Lens, a smart contact lens that aims to assist people with diabetes by constantly measuring the glucose levels in their tears, was announced by Google on January 16, 2014.[46] This project, the nanodiagnostics project[47] to develop a cancer-detecting pill, and other life sciences efforts are now being carried out by Verily.[48]
  • Google Brain is now a deep learning research project at Google which started as an X project. Considered one of the biggest successes,[49] this one project has produced enough value for Google to more than cover the total costs of X, according to Astro Teller.[50]
  • Google Watch (now Wear OS)
  • Gcam (now Pixel Camera)
  • Project Insight, mapping indoor spaces, now integrated into Google Maps[51]
  • Flux, a tool for designing more eco-friendly buildings[52]
  • Daydream View
  • Chronicle

Projects with unknown status

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Abandoned or rejected projects

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  • 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 had a superstructure whose construction was kept under the utmost secrecy.[54] These were eventually revealed to be experimental floating interactive learning centers,[55] though perhaps due to the cost of meeting federal maritime safety regulations, this project was cancelled and the barges dismantled and sold.
  • Foghorn, a project to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuel for vehicles using sea water as a source of carbon dioxide, extracted using membrane technology, and also as a source of hydrogen, using electrolysis. The project was killed by X in 2016 and the results published in 2018.[56]
  • Calcifer explored using lighter-than-air vehicles to move freight at lower cost in countries with poor transportation infrastructure. Abandoned in 2014 due to the high cost of prototyping and limited expected impact.[57]

Projects that X has considered and rejected include a space elevator, which was deemed to be currently infeasible;[58] a hoverboard, which was determined to be too costly relative to the societal benefits;[59] a user-safe jetpack, which was thought to be too loud and energy-wasting;[60] and teleportation, which was found to violate the laws of physics.[60]

Approach

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In February 2016, Astro Teller, the X "Captain of Moonshots", gave a TED talk[61] in which he described the X approach to projects. Unusual characteristics of the approach included constantly trying to find reasons to kill off projects by tackling the hardest parts first, and both celebrating and rewarding staff when projects were killed off due to failure.

On May 17, 2018, an internal video entitled The Selfish Ledger was leaked by The Verge, regarding reshaping society through total data collection. A spokesperson stated that, "This is a thought-experiment by the Design team from years ago that uses a technique known as ‘speculative design’ to explore uncomfortable ideas and concepts in order to provoke discussion and debate. It's not related to any current or future products."[62]

Acquisitions

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A number of companies have been acquired and merged into X, covering a diverse range of skills including wind turbines, robotics, artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, robotic arms, and computer vision. In 2013, X acquired Makani Power, a US company which developed tethered wings/kites with mounted wind turbines for low cost renewable energy generation.[63] In 2014, it acquired product design and mechanical engineering firm Gecko Design, whose previous products included the Fitbit activity tracker and low-cost computers.[64] As of 2015, X has acquired 14 companies, including Redwood Robotics, Meka Robotics, Boston Dynamics, Bot & Dolly, and Jetpac.[64] In June 2017, X sold Boston Dynamics to SoftBank Group,[65] which sold it to Hyundai Motor Company in December 2020.

Campus

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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."[7]

Controversies

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On 25 October 2018, The New York Times published an exposé entitled "How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the 'Father of Android'". The company subsequently announced that "48 employees have been fired over the last two years" for sexual misconduct.[66] A week after the article appeared, Google X executive Rich DeVaul resigned pursuant to a complaint of sexual harassment.[67]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Goldman, David (January 18, 2016). "Google X has a new logo and name". CNN Business. CNN. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
  2. ^ "X Development LLC". OpenCorporates. August 5, 2016. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  3. ^ "X Development LLC - Company Profile and News". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  4. ^ Langley, Hugh (January 10, 2023). "Google's moonshot factory is coming down to Earth". Business Insider. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  5. ^ Rowan, David (October 31, 2013). "Astro Teller of Google[x] wants to improve the world's broken industries". Wired UK. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  6. ^ "Secret Google lab 'rewards failure'". Newsnight. BBC. January 24, 2014. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  7. ^ a b Stone, Brad (May 22, 2013). "Inside Google's Secret Lab". Businessweek. Archived from the original on May 23, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
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  10. ^ "The unexpected benefit of celebrating failure | Astro Teller". May 9, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2018 – via YouTube.
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  13. ^ a b Gertner, Jon (April 15, 2014). "The Truth About Google X: An Exclusive Look Behind The Secretive Lab's Closed Doors". Fast Company. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  14. ^ Erkmen, Baris (December 14, 2017). "Exploring a new approach to connectivity".
  15. ^ "Taara – X, the moonshot factory". X, the moonshot factory. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
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  29. ^ Michelle Toh (January 22, 2021). "Alphabet is shutting down Loon, its ambitious internet balloon venture". CNN. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  30. ^ "Droning On". AOPA Pilot: 63. April 2015.
  31. ^ Warwick, Graham. "Google Details 'Project Wing' Unmanned Package-Delivery R&D" Aviation Week & Space Technology, November 3, 2014. Accessed: November 5, 2014. Archived November 5, 2014, at the Wayback Machine on November 5, 2014
  32. ^ Kovach, Steve (July 31, 2017). "Alphabet's 'moonshot' lab has a new project to store renewable energy". Business Insider. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  33. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (December 19, 2018). "Alphabet's X lab spins out molten-salt energy storage project Malta". VentureBeat. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  34. ^ Hanley, Steve (December 21, 2018). "Google X Spins Off Malta Molten Salt Energy Storage Business". CleanTechnica. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  35. ^ Kovach, Steve. "Google's parent company spun out a new business that heats your home with geothermal energy". Business Insider. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
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  37. ^ Bergen, Mark (August 4, 2017). "Alphabet's Green Energy Ambitions Hit Turbulence". Bloomberg News. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  38. ^ Li, Abner (August 4, 2017). "Various clean energy moonshots at X have hit roadblocks, including Makani kite project". 9to5Google. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
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  41. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (February 19, 2020). "Alphabet takes the wind out of its Makani energy kites". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  42. ^ Anderson, Mark (September 15, 2020). "Exclusive: Airborne Wind Energy Company Closes Shop, Opens Patents". IEEE Spectrum. Archived from the original on December 27, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  43. ^ Echeverri, Paula (September 10, 2020). "Sharing Makani with the world: The Energy Kite Collection". Medium. Archived from the original on December 27, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  44. ^ Bursztynsky, Jessica (July 23, 2021). "Alphabet launches new robotics software company Intrinsic". CNBC. Archived from the original on July 23, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  45. ^ Ridden, Paul (July 23, 2021). "Alphabet launches Intrinsic to make industrial robots easier to use". New Atlas. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
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  47. ^ "Why Google's Cancer-Detecting Pill Is More Than Just Hype". November 5, 2014. Retrieved July 31, 2016.
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  51. ^ Google X Inspired: 8 Moonshots To Watch
  52. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (May 2014). "Flux Emerges From Google X And Nabs $8M To Help Build Eco-Friendly Buildings". TechCrunch.
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  55. ^ Google barge mystery solved: they're for 'interactive learning centers'
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  57. ^ "Explorations – X". x.company. Archived from the original on April 30, 2017.
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  59. ^ Gayomali, Chris (April 15, 2014). "This Is Why We Don't Have Google X Hoverboards Yet". Fast Company. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  60. ^ a b Mack, Eric (May 6, 2014). "Four Crazy Google X Projects That Failed". Forbes. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  61. ^ "The unexpected benefit of celebrating failure". TED. February 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  62. ^ "Google's Selfish Ledger is an unsettling vision of Silicon Valley social engineering". The Verge. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  63. ^ "Google acquires kite-power generator". BBC News. May 23, 2013. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
  64. ^ a b Miners, Zach (August 22, 2014). "Google acquires Gecko Design for next-generation products". Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  65. ^ D'Angelo, Alexa (June 9, 2017). "Why Google wanted to sell – and Softbank wanted to buy – Boston Dynamics, which makes crazy robots". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  66. ^ Welch, Chris (October 25, 2018). "Google says 48 people have been fired for sexual harassment in the last two years". The Verge. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
  67. ^ Musil, Steven (October 30, 2018). "Google exec accused of sexual harassment leaves company". CNET. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
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