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Actually a pretty interesting theory, though it seems a bit like a futile pursuit since another company can just spring up to take their place, or their employe
by CardenB 9y ago
Actually a pretty interesting theory, though it seems a bit like a futile pursuit since another company can just spring up to take their place, or their employees can simply leave.
It seems more likely that when Andy Rubin was placed in charge of Google's hardware, he made a string of robotics acquisitions in a long term bet on a household robot of some sort. In a short period of time, Google acquired 8 robotics companies, many of which specialized in various forms of locomotion which could be explored in parallel to find an optimal form of movement through unstructured environments.
These startups seemed to go nowhere since Rubin left not too long after the acquisitions were made. Hard to say why Rubin left at the time for sure.
So it seems more like Boston Dynamics were acquired for their incredible robotic locomotion, and Google's ambition to make a household robot (code named replicant, which is the term for an android in Blade Runner. By now I assume Rubin is a big fan), would fit with the fact that Boston dynamics adapted a lot of their previous efforts into designing lightweight low range robots suitable for navigating indoor unstructured environments.
- oh_sigh 9y ago.
- lern_too_spel 9y agoRubin was married before Google bought Android, so that doesn't make any sense.
- akg_67 9y agoRubin was married long before he left Google. He also has couple of kids now.
- puzzle 9y agoYou're thinking of Hugo, not Andy.
- deevolution 9y agoIts Japans destiny to create replicants. Quite frankly, This aquisition is no surprise.
- martyvis 9y agoActually as soon as I saw the headline, and knowing that SoftBank is Japanese, I was thinking of Gigantor and Astro Boy!!
- bitL 9y agoJapanese have a "national trauma" from Boston Dynamics - everything they invented in robotics Boston Dynamics brought to perfection, beating them in their own game. Happy now, they will be. Rejoice Hiroshi Ishiguro, he will. Walk Geminoid naturally, it will.
- joering2 9y ago> Hard to say why Rubin left at the time for sure. Rubin worked hard on Android and was ready to release to public. Then Jobs called Google pals and they all got in one room. Jobs called him "fucking dickless asshole" and that he ripped off many features of not-yet-released iPhone. Rubin know it was bullshit, but Jobs demanded plenty of functions to be removed. To his suprise, Google bros did bow to Jobs. Rubin never had the same level of respect for Page or Brin ever since. More to read: http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-on-android-founder-andy-rubin-big-arrogant-f-2013-11 http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-on-android-founder...
- sah2ed 9y ago> [Steve Jobs said] ... that he ripped off many features of not-yet-released iPhone. Rubin know it was bullshit, ... Except that the link you posted seems to disagree with your assessment: "Ethan Beard, an early Android business development executive, told Vogelstein: "We knew that Apple was going to announce a phone. Everyone knew that. We just didn't think it would be that good." Google had phone software that was ready to launch at the end of the year, but it looked awful relative to the iPhone, so it was all scrapped and delayed. "What we had looked so ... nineties," an Android engineer said." Under the direction of Rubin, Google scrapped their independent phone effort and started from scratch to try to match the iPhone feature wise, even though Page and Schmidt had promised Jobs privately that they wouldn't copy the iPhone.
- mc32 9y agoThis makes the most sense. Andy had leeway and some grand plan with regards to robotics but then something happened; he left and the units were left without a great unifying vision and thus more or less directionless and the new management didn't have a new vision for them so they looked to divest from them.