Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving tech company, has officially launched a mobile app on iOS, making it possible for residents in Phoenix to directly hail one of the company's autonomous taxis. The app for iPhone joins the Android version Waymo launched on the Google Play Store earlier this year. The move hints at the eventual large-scale launch of the Waymo One robotaxi service.
Before today, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were CEO and President of Alphabet - now that job goes to the CEO of Google. There will be no President role for Alphabet (for the moment, at least), and Pichai will be CEO of both Google and Alphabet. As Page and Brin said in a letter today, "While it has been a tremendous privilege to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of the company for so long, we believe it’s time to assume the role of proud parents - offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!"
Google launched Project Loon back in 2013 to experiment with the idea of bringing Internet connectivity, specifically 4G LTE to normally inaccessible areas using high-altitude balloons. Now a company in its own right under the Alphabet family, Loon LCC is now in a position to do more than just test flights. It can now sign deals with local telcos to actually bring those plans to fruition, like what it will be doing in Peru to bring 4G Internet speeds remote regions in the country.
There has been a lot of attention paid on AI and robotics these days but the majority of those focus on either very specialized tasks or, on the other extreme, theoretical algorithms. The robots of today are still a far cry from the robots of fiction that exist not just to build cars or drive them but also to help humans in their everyday lives. To that end, Google's sibling company X has started an Everyday Robot Project to design, build, and train robots that can learn to do the messy stuff that comes as second nature to humans.
Following news about its plans, Alphabet's Wing has started delivering small packages to people in Virginia using drones. The deliveries are made possible thanks to the company's Air Carrier Certificate received from the FAA, which officially makes Alphabet the first company to offer a commercial air delivery service to private residences in the US.
Alphabet subsidiary Wing, a company that developed a drone system capable of delivering small packages, has announced an upcoming pilot program that will conduct some deliveries for Walgreens and FedEx. The pilot program will start next month in Christiansburg, Virginia, where Wing says it will use this opportunity to 'explore' things like offering better access to health care products, opening new doors for local businesses, and presenting a last-mile delivery option.
Waymo is aiming to make its autonomous taxis even more appealing by adding WiFi connectivity in them, according to a new report. The WiFi option would enable passengers to use their gadgets without relying on their own mobile service, potentially appealing to customers who want to spend their commuting time getting work done.
Google buried the lede with their newest Google Glass press release, focusing on the newest device rather than the group's biggest move to date. The group responsible for Google Glass will, for the first time since inception, move from Alphabet's "X" to Google proper. This move was made, according to Google, to "meet the demands of the growing market for wearables in the workplace and to better scale our enterprise efforts."
In an announcement on Friday, Alphabet's Wing revealed that it will start delivering items by drone in Helsinki later this summer. The deliveries will be made in the city's Vuosaari district to residents who place orders through Herkku Food Market and Cafe Monami. The company will deliver a number of food items, including meatballs, pastries, and snacks.
Google's Pixel smartphones may have received rave reviews but that hasn't translated into great sales, the company admitted today, confirming new hardware is on the schedule for Google I/O 2019. Revealing $6.6 billion in net income for Q1 2019, based on $36.33 billions in revenue, Alphabet disappointed investors by missing its estimates.
Self-driving car company Waymo is planning to open an 85,000-square-foot "technical service center" in Mesa, Arizona, the company announced on Tuesday. According to Waymo, this new service will more than double its current capacity for servicing, maintaining, and growing its Waymo One fleet. As well, the company says it will hire "up to" hundreds of new employees in the city.
Google may be cutting down on its work with hardware products in the very near future, per an announcement made to some employees at the business this week. It's been suggested by several people familiar with the matter that Google's informed "dozens" of engineers and program managers that they should seek employment elsewhere within Alphabet. That doesn't bode well for any sort of major expansion of products in the near future.