Waymo is pulling the plug on its ambitions to be a LIDAR supplier, with the autonomous vehicle company set to be the only customer for its homegrown sensor tech. LIDAR - or light detection and ranging - sensors have become commonplace in developing self-driving vehicles, though Waymo had hoped to push adoption of the technology in other industries.
Waymo is starting up autonomous ride-hailing in San Francisco, though don't expect to be able to summon a self-driving cab any time soon. Though the Google spin-off's Waymo One service currently offers public rides in Phoenix, AZ, its new Trusted Tester program will be a more exclusive experience.
Alphabet has started up a new robotics company, Intrinsic, with Google's parent firm looking to make smarter industrial 'bots. The announcement comes shortly after Alphabet sold Boston Dynamics - known for its attention-grabbing human and animal inspired robots - to Hyundai, but it seems Intrinsic will focus on a very different area of the field.
Alphabet's Wing has released its OpenSky drone piloting app in the US, aiming to make it easier for UAV operators - whether individuals or companies - to figure out where they can fly without falling foul of FAA and other rules. The app initially debuted in 2019, though was originally only available in Australia.
Google parent Alphabet has been working on "a moonshot" for the electric grid, with a secret project in its X R&D division aiming to figure out how to make power use more stable, and more green, than it is today. The research, revealed at the White House Leaders Summit on Climate, has been underway for the past three years.
Waymo's CEO is stepping down, Alphabet's autonomous car company has confirmed, with John Krafcik handing over the digital reins to the driverless vehicles to two new co-CEO instead. Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana - currently Waymo's COO and CTO - will both be responsible for Waymo moving forward, as the company considers how best to expand its robotaxi ride-hailing service.
Alphabet's "moonshot factory" X is working on a new project codenamed "Wolverine," according to a new leak, and it may involve a wearable that facilitates super-hearing capabilities. The project is described as top-secret at this time and named after the popular superhero character Wolverine. The codename Wolverine wearable project reportedly picked up steam back in 2018, resulting in multiple prototypes.
Google is notorious for retiring apps and services, whether those were in wide use or not. That doesn't apply to just software either and the company has sunset more than a handful of unsuccessful hardware projects that would have caused smaller companies to fold. Not Google, of course, for whom experiments, big or small, are a fact of life. The latest to join the dreaded Google Graveyard is Loon, the moonshot turned "Other Bet" that would have brought the Internet to places where towers and cables dare not go.
Waymo is drawing a line in the sand for driverless terminology, announcing today that it will no longer refer to its vehicles as "self-driving" and arguing that the industry needs more consistency in how it refers to cars that can operate themselves. Though the language change may seem slight, the Alphabet-owned company concedes, it's actually key to making sure human drivers know just what is and isn't required from them in future vehicles.
Alphabet's DeepMind has used its AI system to figure out a five decade old mystery in biology, the company has announced today, using AlphaFold to help understand protein behaviors. The company came to notoriety for its neural network developments, which demonstrated their human-besting capabilities in playing chess, go, and shogi.
Waymo's driverless taxi service is opening up to the public, exiting beta in Phoenix, AZ and allowing Waymo One members to book the autonomous minivans. The Waymo Driver, as the Alphabet company describes its self-driving tech, has until now been providing rides for a small subset of Waymo One users, and Waymo has been careful to prevent those riders from talking about the experience.
Alphabet's Verily has announced plans to launch Coefficient, a health insurance subsidiary that will eventually leverage Verily's various technologies and health-related devices. The insurance subsidiary will be backed by Swiss Re Group's Swiss Re Corporate Solutions commercial insurance unit. According to Verily, its Coefficient will, among other things, offer 'novel insurance and payment models.'