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Google Puts Boston Dynamics Up For Sale In Robotics Retreat (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader writes from an article on Bloomberg: Executives at Google parent Alphabet Inc., absorbed with making sure all the various companies under its corporate umbrella have plans to generate real revenue, concluded that Boston Dynamics isn't likely to produce a marketable product in the next few years and have put the unit up for sale, according to two people familiar with the company's plans. Possible acquirers include the Toyota Research Institute, a division of Toyota Motor Corp., and Amazon.com Inc., which makes robots for its fulfillment centers, according to one person. Google acquired Boston Dynamics in late 2013 as part of a spree of acquisitions in the field of robotics. Over the following year, the robot initiative, dubbed Replicant, was plagued by leadership changes, failures to collaborate between companies and an unsuccessful effort to recruit a new leader. Jonathan Rosenberg, an adviser to Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Larry Page and former Google senior vice president, said, "we as a startup of our size cannot spend 30-plus percent of our resources on things that take ten years," and that "there's some time frame that we need to be generating an amount of revenue that covers expenses and (that) needs to be a few years." In December, Google announced that Replicant had been folded into Google's advanced research group, Google X. In a private all-hands meeting around that time, Astro Teller, the head of Google X, told Replicant employees that if robotics aren't the practical solution to problems that Google was trying to solve, they would be reassigned to work on other things, according to a person who was at that meeting. Boston Dynamics, though, was never folded into Google X and was instead put up for sale.
I always feel bad when the people try to kick over the dog robots. I understand the point they're trying to make, but they seem to be doing it with too much glee.
This is their opportunity to get into the game and produce manufacturing equipment. In addition, BD is ideal for the moon and mars.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
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Advertising company can't find real-world applications for large autonomous robots. Companies with actual R&D vision sought as buyers.
Google is falling apart at the seams.
The impression I had was that Big Dog was their big product. Google bought them and killed the program cause they don't do defense work. I thought the Army saying Big Dog didn't meet noise requirements was something that allowed everyone to save face.
Maybe Google shouldn't have bought a robotics company that was primarily defense funded...
The first thing I thought when I read that was "I didn't know Google owned a sports team" - thought it was a WNBA team or something.
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"we as a startup of our size cannot spend 30-plus percent of our resources on things that take ten years," and that "there's some time frame that we need to be generating an amount of revenue that covers expenses and (that) needs to be a few years."
This is what the onset of an AI Winter looks like.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Maybe Alphabet won't wind up changing its name to Skynet now that it's spinning off the terrifying robot division.
This is what happens when a company has too much money and has delusions of grandeur. All the execs start buying stuff without having a clue what they are going to do with it.
Google bought Motorola, took the patents that they wanted, and sold the rest to Lenovo a few years later.
It's probably the same deal with Boston Dynamics.
And here I was hoping for them to really take off under Google's tutelage to the point where they could be renamed Massive Dynamic.
When I say the latest Boston Dynamics Atlas video, I joked that the robot which picked up boxed would eventually replace warehouse workers.
Now, as soon as Google decides to put Boston Dynamics on the selling block, Amazon is already interested.
So now Amazon will have drone delivery robots, android factory workers, and i can imagine there could be deliveries via self-driving cars.
I think it's safe to say Google et al are no longer startups
I'd be screaming for them to return cash, instead of light it on fire. What is wrong with returning money to investors if you have a highly profitable, core business whose success you are unlikely to duplicate? Pure vanity on the adolescents running the company.
And I was hoping that they would put Alpha Go into one of those robots and bring about the downfall of humanity.
Google is no fun.
That was where the money is. Fembots with a penchant for evil even more so!
If your timeline for generating revenue is "a few years", then you should not be in the business of doing advanced research. You're just going to be disappointed.
That's a field where you're spending a ton of dough, and you won't have a product for 10 years. At least, that's how long it's going to take for the adoption and legalization of autonomous vehicles -- hey google -- when a person with no driver's license can step into a taxi that has no driver, let me know.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Friends don't let friends get bought by Google. No matter how much they offer you.
They will take your product, shit on it, market it in ways that will make people hate you, then kill / sell your product like a used condom.
EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
I cannot think of any company Google have acquired that they haven't shit on.
They are literally worse than Microsoft these days.
The reason for this selling decision is probably that Google brain felt the same way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The article hints at other reasons. The latest youtube boston dynamics video showing the robot doing human work, was not only impressive, it was frightening. Not that we don't know that it is going to happen (not only in transportation, or manufacturing but also in service, consulting, transportation, delivery, military, health care or teaching), it was scary to see a bot doing things so well, to walk around, do errands. For a company, to be associated or identified with a job eliminator, this is a PR disaster in the long term. Its more subtle in AI or other domains of automation, where we don't see it. And then the article mentions also the lack of short term profitable products and leadership problems. But its interesting to see how non-technical factors start to matter more and more. But as mentioned before, the most important asset which google probably got from the company is the know-how, the top notch engineering, the human potential which can do be used also in non-robotic things. But whoever buys the company, the technology will continue change the future. Amazon is interested. Imagine all the packing and delivery work done by such droids. Maybe they should dress them as minions to make it more acceptable ...
But ... but ... robots! Google! I for one welcoming our new overlords! How can this be?
BD was a defense company, and was doing a lot of SBIR (small business) and DARPA work before google stepped in. I was surprised when Google bought them, and I'm not at all surprised by this. They didn't sell robots; they sold research. A more likely acquirer would be boeing or lockheed martin or maybe another large defense contractor with a need to grow through acquisition. Anyone with an eye toward the consumer market; even a industrial market like amazon, is not likely going to benefit from them.
I was pretty unhappy that google bought them in the first place as they're not exactly known for long term complicated projects (generally).
I look forward to purchasing a robot that will go around my house and water the plants every day with ZERO setup or config to do. There, how about that as a project idea that has less of a chance of breakdown-by-requirements.
Anyways cheers Boston Dynamics. I look forward to your future.