AstroTeller
Latest
NYT: Alphabet's reorganized 'X' division now includes robots
Last year Google shipped off some of its wilder projects for administration under new parent company Alphabet, which included its efforts with robots and the lab formerly known as Google X. A New York Times report says that the latter, now just known as the X research division, is in control of the disparate robotics projects acquired by Andy Rubin. To help manage the team, a former Nokia exec (with some interesting ideas about how Android can beat iPhone) named Hans Peter Brøndmo also joined up this month.
Google ditched the steering wheel because people are unreliable
If you've ever wondered why Google decided to build its own car, well, you have at least part of your answer now. During a talk at SXSW, Astro Teller, the head of Google X, told the crowd that they decided to remove the steering wheel and brakes entirely because humans are not a "reliable backup" for the self-driving system. What does he mean exactly? Well, he believes that Google has already "mastered" highway driving. The company had put in hundreds of thousands of hours, autonomously cruising California freeways. The project had even reached the dog-fooding phase, in which Googlers test out the project in the real world. So employees that didn't work in the semi-secretive Google X division were essentially invited to beta test the vehicle and commute to work in a robot car -- under the condition that they pay very close attention and be the world's best bug reporters.
