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Alphabet's hot salt energy-storage project becomes its own company
Alphabet's X division has played host to a string of experimental ideas, and another one is spinning out as an independent business. Malta uses cheap, abundant materials including salt, anti-freeze and steel to store power at grid scale.
Waymo launches its first commercial self-driving car service
The rumor was true: Waymo's self-driving car service is here. The company has launched Waymo One, its first commercial ride hailing offering. People in part of the metro Phoenix area can use an app to ask for an autonomous vehicle 24/7 much like they would ridesharing cars, complete with price estimates and trip reviews. Up to three adults and a child can travel at once. To no one's surprise, though, Waymo is starting cautiously -- it's hoping to avoid further collisions and ease the community into a driverless world.
Alphabet's Wing drones are heading to Europe
Wing, the drone delivery project of Google's parent company Alphabet, graduated from an X program to a fully-fledged business earlier this year. After testing burritos by drone back in 2016, the project expanded into rural Australia last year and now, after becoming a proper company, the service is rolling out tests in Finland. It's announced that from spring 2019, it'll start delivering goods across 10 kilometer distances in the cold capital of Helsinki.
Inside Chronicle, Alphabet’s cybersecurity moonshot
Fifteen years ago, cybersecurity could be boiled down to a simple strategy: Secure the perimeter. Experts fought against malware and other nefarious code by implementing firewalls and other point-of-entry defenses. Since then, however, companies have moved their operations online and allowed employees to bring their own devices (BYOD) to work. The so-called perimeter has dissolved in the process, forcing security practitioners to prioritize tracking, understanding and ultimately making judgments about the information flowing both inside and outside of their company.
How Dandelion is making geothermal heating affordable
Millions of US citizens still use oil and natural gas to heat their homes during the winter. Many would like to switch to geothermal, a cleaner and ultimately cheaper system that leverages the natural temperature of the earth. A few feet below the surface, the soil sits at a reliable 50- to 60-degree Fahrenheit all year round. Pipes known as 'ground loops' push round a special antifreeze solution that absorbs this constant temperature in winter and disperses unwanted warmth in the summer. A large indoor heat pump uses the mixture to boil a refrigerant fluid; the resulting gas is then compressed to higher temperatures and distributed around the home. Installing the necessary equipment is expensive, however. Dandelion, a company that started inside Alphabet's X division, is trying to make geothermal cheaper and easier to install. While not the most eye-catching technology, especially compared to electric cars and sea-cooled data centers, it's arguably one of the most important for the environment.
Alphabet's Loon internet balloons broadcast their strongest signal yet
Mere months after shedding its "project" moniker, Google's internet-by-balloon moonshot, Loon has hit another milestone. Last month, the tech juggernaut pushed data packets across seven of its balloons at a distance of nearly 1,000 kilometers. Previously, the record was 100 kilometers across two balloons, according to a Medium post from Loon.
Alphabet's Project Shield expands DDoS protection to politics
Today, Alphabet announced that Project Shield is widening its scope. The free service is now expanding to include protecting any registered political organization from DDoS attacks. This includes candidates, political action committees and campaigns.
Alphabet's X lab explores using AI to improve food production
Add Alphabet to the growing number of companies hoping that AI will solve food production problems. The Google parent brand's X lab has revealed that it's exploring ways machine learning could improve farming. While X hasn't focused on any specific solutions, lab leader Astro Teller told MIT Technology Review that AI could be combined with drones and other robotics. It could help determine when to harvest crops, or adapt farms in areas where climate change makes forecasting difficult.
