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What I never understood is what Google was going to do with this tech. Makes much more sense to sell it to the defense industry AFAICT. What does a search compa

What I never understood is what Google was going to do with this tech. Makes much more sense to sell it to the defense industry AFAICT. What does a search company want with a bomb dog robot?

ido 9y ago
What does a search company want with autonomous cars? The answer is that Alphabet doesn't see itself as a search company.
- peter303 9y ago
  Rich boys that can afford ANY toys. Alphabet wraps the hobbies of Larry and Sergey. As long as the main part of the company makes obscene amounts of money, the board and stock holders dont care too much.
  - euyyn 9y ago
    If you're trying to suggest that autonomous cars aren't a field with the potential to make a lot of money, you're in a very small minority.
nailer 9y ago
My understanding was that Alphabet was going to license/sell the resulting products to the defense industry.
- jordanthoms 9y ago
  Why pull out of the DARPA competitions then? https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185570-google-finally-proves-it-wont-pursue-military-contacts-pulls-leading-robot-from-darpa-competition https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185570-google-finally-pr...
  - nailer 9y ago
    Ah I missed that. Too late to edit post but I stand corrected.
- lorenzorhoades 9y ago
  I think they noticed that these could not be massed produced very easily. They will not fit the model that google is trying to work with robotics.
  - sharemywin 9y ago
    That's the problem with being that big they could create 10 $1 Billion companies and their stock price would sit and blink at them.
- golfer 9y ago
  I highly doubt that. You're gonna need a citation there.
narag 9y ago
What does a search company want with a bomb dog robot? In a wide sense Google is an artificial intelligence company. Search is an AI application. No wonder they try to enter the autonomous robots sector, first with cars, then with that bomb dog.
shubb 9y ago
This was the idea of alphabet - Google the search engine is one of the companies Alphabet holds. Google is an established company that can be milked but revenue has probably grown as much as it can. To continue to show growth, alphabet planned to bet a moderate investment on entering new sectors with huge growth prospects, making medium term investments by buying leading companies and giving them the funding they needed to get ahead. This is why Google no longer does stuff like Google X, 20% time etc - as a subsidiary they have got out of the innovation business, at least any more than other established companies. Alphabet makes more sense when you read it as Alpha Bet - http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/alpha.asp http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/alpha.asp
- FiveDegrees 9y ago
  >Alpha Bet How did I not notice that earlier?
- tgb 9y ago
  That's not accurate - Alphabet Inc didn't exist at the time that Boston Dynamics was acquired.
  - ma2rten 9y ago
    But Google was still investing in "other bets" that have nothing to do with search.
    - mycall 9y ago
      Now I understand their name, thanks.
- ma2rten 9y ago
  Google still has 20% time. That is a myth. Google even has an internal startup incubator that allows participants to spend 100% of their time on 20% projects. https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2016/05/19/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-confirms-area-120-corporate-incubator/#6e682c2d1f2b https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2016/05/19/google-c...
robotresearcher 9y ago
It's an advertising company. And BigDog was a mule, not a bomb dog. https://www.bostondynamics.com/bigdog https://www.bostondynamics.com/bigdog https://www.bostondynamics.com/ls3 https://www.bostondynamics.com/ls3
throwaway-1209 9y ago
Google has a bunch of "PR" projects whose sole purpose is to distract the public, their own employees, and, importantly, potential employees from the fact that they're 95% an advertising company. Where would you rather work, at a company which does ads, or a company that does autonomous cars, internet balloons and AI? Never mind that only about 2% of googlers actually get to do that. Most of the rest are just "temporarily embarrassed".
- Houshalter 9y ago
  Every large tech company has very diverse interests. I mean even Microsoft doesn't just make Windows, they bought minecraft. They all know that technology changes quickly and tech companies can die overnight. Most don't even do what they started as - IBM doesn't make punch card tabulating machines, apple makes phones now, and Google does tons of stuff other than search. Imagine if Adblock became ubiquitous, Google's advertising business would be fucked. But many of their investments could adapt and live on. I makes perfect sense for Google to invest in robotics. They are already heavily invested in AI which will benefit robotics immensely. And with the coming robotics revolution, whatever companies get in early stand to make billions.
  - throwaway-1209 9y ago
    No, they could not "adapt". Ballmer's "one trick pony" comment is as true today as it was years ago. They derive the vast majority (90%+ iirc) of their revenue from ads. If ads are fucked, Google will be fucked too.
    - munificent 9y ago
      If ads are fucked, entire segments of the modern world economy are fucked.
      - throwaway-1209 9y ago
        The economy will be fine. Maybe even better than before. People will just figure out how to charge for content on the internet, and everyone will be all right.
cr0sh 9y ago
> What does a search company want with a bomb dog robot? I was under the impression originally that they were going to use it for "internal space" mapping (maybe not big dog, but something more like atlas, or maybe a smaller quad). This was something that Google Glass was supposed to be for, but of course we know how people reacted to that. It kinda made sense at the time - sorta. There are places which the mapping cars can't go, and the "human backpack" mappers are few (I would imagine - that gear doesn't look lightweight, so I would imagine you need to be somewhat fit to take on that job) - and still can't go certain places (and I doubt they would be allowed in certain areas). But if they could get systems "inside" that can map but are unobtrusive, they could offer that new set of data to advertisers as well. For example - though a dying area - think about malls, and what advertisers (and the stores inside as well) could do with the information gained. It's one thing to go to google maps and get directions to a place, but it stops at the "border" (of say a mall). You still don't know where that store is inside (or outside) of the border. You have to consult a map, or whatnot. Maybe you part on the opposite side of where it is, and you have to walk further, or whatever. Being able to map that in a finer manner would be useful for consumers and the advertisers. Apparently I was wrong in my assessment. I guess it's a good thing I wasn't investing on anything based on that!
Animats 9y ago
Google/Alphabet has a lot of cash and needs to do something with it. That something has to have a return comparable to their main business, ads. Otherwise, their stock goes down as overall ROI declines. Since there are not many businesses that have the return on investment of being #1 in online ads, they're forced to look for "moonshots". Not that they've found any that make money on a scale comparable to ads.

What I never understood is what Google was going to do with this tech. Makes much more sense to sell it to the defense industry AFAICT. What does a search company want with a bomb dog robot?

ido 9y ago

What does a search company want with autonomous cars? The answer is that Alphabet doesn't see itself as a search company.

peter303 9y ago
Rich boys that can afford ANY toys. Alphabet wraps the hobbies of Larry and Sergey. As long as the main part of the company makes obscene amounts of money, the board and stock holders dont care too much.
- euyyn 9y ago
  If you're trying to suggest that autonomous cars aren't a field with the potential to make a lot of money, you're in a very small minority.

nailer 9y ago

My understanding was that Alphabet was going to license/sell the resulting products to the defense industry.

jordanthoms 9y ago
Why pull out of the DARPA competitions then? https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185570-google-finally-proves-it-wont-pursue-military-contacts-pulls-leading-robot-from-darpa-competition https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185570-google-finally-pr...
- nailer 9y ago
  Ah I missed that. Too late to edit post but I stand corrected.
lorenzorhoades 9y ago
I think they noticed that these could not be massed produced very easily. They will not fit the model that google is trying to work with robotics.
- sharemywin 9y ago
  That's the problem with being that big they could create 10 $1 Billion companies and their stock price would sit and blink at them.
golfer 9y ago
I highly doubt that. You're gonna need a citation there.

narag 9y ago

What does a search company want with a bomb dog robot? In a wide sense Google is an artificial intelligence company. Search is an AI application. No wonder they try to enter the autonomous robots sector, first with cars, then with that bomb dog.

shubb 9y ago

This was the idea of alphabet - Google the search engine is one of the companies Alphabet holds. Google is an established company that can be milked but revenue has probably grown as much as it can. To continue to show growth, alphabet planned to bet a moderate investment on entering new sectors with huge growth prospects, making medium term investments by buying leading companies and giving them the funding they needed to get ahead. This is why Google no longer does stuff like Google X, 20% time etc - as a subsidiary they have got out of the innovation business, at least any more than other established companies. Alphabet makes more sense when you read it as Alpha Bet - http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/alpha.asp http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/alpha.asp

FiveDegrees 9y ago
>Alpha Bet How did I not notice that earlier?
tgb 9y ago
That's not accurate - Alphabet Inc didn't exist at the time that Boston Dynamics was acquired.
- ma2rten 9y ago
  But Google was still investing in "other bets" that have nothing to do with search.
  - mycall 9y ago
    Now I understand their name, thanks.
ma2rten 9y ago
Google still has 20% time. That is a myth. Google even has an internal startup incubator that allows participants to spend 100% of their time on 20% projects. https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2016/05/19/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-confirms-area-120-corporate-incubator/#6e682c2d1f2b https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2016/05/19/google-c...

robotresearcher 9y ago

It's an advertising company. And BigDog was a mule, not a bomb dog. https://www.bostondynamics.com/bigdog https://www.bostondynamics.com/bigdog https://www.bostondynamics.com/ls3 https://www.bostondynamics.com/ls3

throwaway-1209 9y ago

Google has a bunch of "PR" projects whose sole purpose is to distract the public, their own employees, and, importantly, potential employees from the fact that they're 95% an advertising company. Where would you rather work, at a company which does ads, or a company that does autonomous cars, internet balloons and AI? Never mind that only about 2% of googlers actually get to do that. Most of the rest are just "temporarily embarrassed".

Houshalter 9y ago
Every large tech company has very diverse interests. I mean even Microsoft doesn't just make Windows, they bought minecraft. They all know that technology changes quickly and tech companies can die overnight. Most don't even do what they started as - IBM doesn't make punch card tabulating machines, apple makes phones now, and Google does tons of stuff other than search. Imagine if Adblock became ubiquitous, Google's advertising business would be fucked. But many of their investments could adapt and live on. I makes perfect sense for Google to invest in robotics. They are already heavily invested in AI which will benefit robotics immensely. And with the coming robotics revolution, whatever companies get in early stand to make billions.
- throwaway-1209 9y ago
  No, they could not "adapt". Ballmer's "one trick pony" comment is as true today as it was years ago. They derive the vast majority (90%+ iirc) of their revenue from ads. If ads are fucked, Google will be fucked too.
  - munificent 9y ago
    If ads are fucked, entire segments of the modern world economy are fucked.
    - throwaway-1209 9y ago
      The economy will be fine. Maybe even better than before. People will just figure out how to charge for content on the internet, and everyone will be all right.

cr0sh 9y ago

> What does a search company want with a bomb dog robot? I was under the impression originally that they were going to use it for "internal space" mapping (maybe not big dog, but something more like atlas, or maybe a smaller quad). This was something that Google Glass was supposed to be for, but of course we know how people reacted to that. It kinda made sense at the time - sorta. There are places which the mapping cars can't go, and the "human backpack" mappers are few (I would imagine - that gear doesn't look lightweight, so I would imagine you need to be somewhat fit to take on that job) - and still can't go certain places (and I doubt they would be allowed in certain areas). But if they could get systems "inside" that can map but are unobtrusive, they could offer that new set of data to advertisers as well. For example - though a dying area - think about malls, and what advertisers (and the stores inside as well) could do with the information gained. It's one thing to go to google maps and get directions to a place, but it stops at the "border" (of say a mall). You still don't know where that store is inside (or outside) of the border. You have to consult a map, or whatnot. Maybe you part on the opposite side of where it is, and you have to walk further, or whatever. Being able to map that in a finer manner would be useful for consumers and the advertisers. Apparently I was wrong in my assessment. I guess it's a good thing I wasn't investing on anything based on that!

Animats 9y ago

Google/Alphabet has a lot of cash and needs to do something with it. That something has to have a return comparable to their main business, ads. Otherwise, their stock goes down as overall ROI declines. Since there are not many businesses that have the return on investment of being #1 in online ads, they're forced to look for "moonshots". Not that they've found any that make money on a scale comparable to ads.