(The Atlantic)
Google has been working
on self-driving cars for some years now, but the company has just
revealed that it is working on yet another ambitious and autonomous
vehicle project. According to the BBC and The Atlantic,
the secretive Google X team has been working for two years on Project
Wing, a drone-based delivery system that sounds a lot like the Amazon
drones that CEO Jeff Bezos announced last year.
However, while Google says
these vehicles can be used for delivering goods, the project's main
focus doesn't appear to be appeasing shoppers who need things right
away. Instead, it sounds like Google envisions using these drones in
disaster relief scenarios — they could theoretically deliver supplies to
areas in need. "Even just a few of these, being able to shuttle nearly
continuously could service a very large number of people in an emergency
situation," said Google X's Astro Teller to the BBC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cRTNvWcx9Oo
Despite that noble goal, Google did say in The Atlantic that
these vehicles can also be used to deliver goods to buyers, just as
Amazon hopes to do. The company now has dozens of people working on the
project (more are expected to join soon) with the goal of delivering
things to people quickly via these small, "self-flying vehicles."
The vehicle itself consists of
four electrically-driven propellers with a wingspan of about five feet;
it weighs just under 19 pounds and can take off and land without a
runway. According to the BBC, the entire weight of the craft and the
item it is delivering is only 22 pounds — which means these drones won't
be delivering an Xbox to your front door. Its computer is near the tail
section, while the power is near the front of the plane. Onboard is
GPS, cameras, radios, and an inertial measurement sensor that's made up
of accelerometers and gyroscopes to help the craft determine how it's
positioned.
Google and Amazon are both staking claims in the drone delivery space
While developing the project,
Google found that people wanted to grab the packages from the drone,
which could have injured them because of the tiny propellers. That's
where the design for the package delivery by string came from, which was
designed by a one of Google's mechanical engineers. The string is
actually fishing line, while the small grip is called the "egg."
Google envisions a system that
is controlled in part by computers as well as people. Controllers will
be able to oversee what the drones are doing and take control. That
could be useful in cases where packages could get stuck. And Google says
it plans to use some of those human interactions to help improve the
automated software, like it's done with its self-driving car program.
Beyond Astro Teller, Google
recruited Nick Roy from MIT to lead the project; he took a two-year
sabbatical to help get it off the ground. But Google's been working on
this for some time — Project Wing was originally envisioned as a way to
deliver defibrillators to people who were having heart attacks, but
Google ran into issues with that idea because it would involve being
integrated into 911 and emergency services. Of course, the company still
faces plenty of challenges getting it off the ground in the US — in
fact, the company has mostly been testing Project Wing in Australia,
which has more "progressive" ideas about the use of drones compared to
Google's home country.
Indeed, Google's drone program
might be further away from reality than its self-driving cars — but it
sounds like the company is going to use all of its considerable power to
push the initiative forward, including getting in with the regulatory
boards that'll ultimately decide whether Google's crafts can take to the
skies. It's gonna take conversations with the public and with
regulators. But so far in the conversations we've had over the last two
years, and more intensely over the last couple months with regulators,
I'm cautiously optimistic that everyone wants the same thing," Teller
said to The Atlantic.
Josh Lowensohn contributed to this report.
Update 7:00 PM ET: Google has officially confirmed Project Wing by releasing a YouTube video about the project over Twitter.
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