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I think what's sad is not that they shut down the project soon after acquiring Titan Aerospace, but that they kept it quiet for almost a year. That sort of PR
by jayjay71 10y ago
I think what's sad is not that they shut down the project soon after acquiring Titan Aerospace, but that they kept it quiet for almost a year. That sort of PR practice makes me worry about their internal culture.
Edit: It concerns me because I wonder how many other projects they've announced and shut down without telling us, and what that must be like for the employees who are no doubt under NDA who are shuffled around and unable to talk about it. Imagine if your company were acquired by X, and then you get fired, and you can't even tell your friends or potential employers it's because X axed the project.
- HappyTypist 10y agoCompanies don't typically announce they've shut down a generally unannounced project. I consider Titan one.
- jayjay71 10y agoI don't see it that way - the acquisition was public and there were articles on the project in the past. http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/2/8131145/googles-titan-drone-flight-internet-access http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/2/8131145/googles-titan-drone...
- pdimitar 10y agoIn a broad interpretation, such a practice could be interpreted as innovation stifling. Buy a solid player and covertly shut it down -- (1) no expenses for you outside the buying and (2) others might/will be discouraged to progress in the area because you, Alphabet/Google sent the message that you will do things in the area.
- hydrogen18 10y agoOn the contrary. Blizzard cancelled a project also called Titan which they had never actually publicly announced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(Blizzard_Entertainment_project) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(Blizzard_Entertainment_...
- freehunter 10y agoAlso Microsoft's unreleased booklet PC, Microsoft Courier. Never officially announced as anything other than a concept, but they did offer an official notice that the project was canceled.
- asynchronous13 10y agoBut if you buy something for a lot of money, and then you figure it out you paid way too much you don't typically walk around bragging about it.
- jayjay71 10y agoOwning up to mistakes is the fastest way to make progress. Waiting so long to admit that a project failed worries me. X is supposed to be a moonshot factory, where failures are celebrated and reality dictates that the majority of their undertakings will fail. To me, the delay is indicative of a culture more concerned with appearances than substance. Maybe X had good reasons for staying quiet for so long, but unless they say why it's hard to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.
- sangnoir 10y ago> Owning up to mistakes is the fastest way to make progress. Pretending they never happened is indicative of an opaque culture that is more concerned with appearances than substance. What makes you think this didn't happen internally?
- jayjay71 10y agoI don't know what happened internally. But if that happened internally and they weren't willing to announce it externally, that shows they are concerned with appearances. And if that didn't happen internally then they have a cultural issue where they are afraid to embrace failure and learn from it. Obviously I have limited information and I am not trying to define X based on this one event. But I do think it says something about the culture there.
- ZeroFries 10y agoEvery company is concerned with appearance. It's how they're judged.
- 10y ago
- Animats 10y agoThat seems to have happened to some of the robot companies Google bought. Bot and Dolly [1], which did robot-assisted special effects for Hollywood, had actual products, customers, and film credits in major movies. Now they're just gone. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX6JcybgDFo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX6JcybgDFo