Alphabet's 'Project Wing' Drone Service Nixes Starbucks Partnership (bloomberg.com)

Bloomberg is reporting that Google's parent company Alphabet is tightening the reigns on Project Wing, a unit of Alphabet's X research lab, by "trimming headcount and shelving initiatives." What's more is that they've reportedly nixed a partnership with Starbucks. Bloomberg reports: Following the departure of project leader Dave Vos in October, the unit also froze hiring and began asking some staff to seek jobs elsewhere in the company, according to some of those people [familiar with the decision]. The decisions are part of a broader Alphabet effort to rein in spending and try to turn more experimental projects from loss-making risky bets into real businesses. Drones are in a particularly knotty place. U.S. federal regulation does not yet allow for delivery, except in select test zones. However, Alphabet's deceleration comes as other technology companies, including Amazon.com Inc., plow money into drone delivery. In August, Project Wing won approval for test flights at a U.S. site, part of a White House effort to encourage unmanned vehicle delivery. Then in September, Alphabet announced a new foray: a partnership with Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. to deliver food via drone at Virginia Tech. Alphabet was in advanced talks with Starbucks and had tested delivery with the coffee-chain operator, according to two people familiar with the plans. Those plans were nixed, largely over disagreements about the access to customer data that Alphabet wanted, according to a former X employee.

Comments

It's on its way to get canceled

[melted]

It's on its way to get canceled. The company doesn't sell much in the way of physical goods. They simply don't need a drone project. They spun it up for PR, but now that PR dividend is dwindling, they're probably looking to wrap it up. I'll give it another year or so.

Re:It's on its way to get canceled

[tlhIngan]

It's on its way to get canceled. The company doesn't sell much in the way of physical goods. They simply don't need a drone project. They spun it up for PR, but now that PR dividend is dwindling, they're probably looking to wrap it up. I'll give it another year or so.

Or perhaps this is the reason:

Alphabet was in advanced talks with Starbucks and had tested delivery with the coffee-chain operator, according to two people familiar with the plans. Those plans were nixed, largely over disagreements about the access to customer data that Alphabet wanted, according to a former X employee.

Basically, the only reason Google was in it was to get at juicy customer data - knowing who they're delivering coffee for is something they can add to their little profile on you.

So the drones themselves were more a vehicle to get information about the customer - knowing you get Chipotle every day, and Starbucks in the mornings, lunch, afternoon, etc., is valuable customer data they wanted.

Of course, the companies themselves probably just wanted to give Google a name and a location, which is just poor quality information since they're non-unique. Maybe if Google snapped a photo for recognition purposes ...

Re:It's on its way to get canceled

[Robert Goatse]

Good for Starbucks. I bet Google wanted every single bit of customer information and Starbucks balked (or at least that's how it appears).

Re:It's on its way to get canceled

[Anonymous Coward]

So when will G open source the code and design ?

Thats right they wont, they only open source stuff that doesnt cost them any advantage.

Re:INTRODUCING: Apple iScooter 9

[sexconker]

I hope you eventually get this working right, just so I can see wtf it's supposed to look like. Also I hope "homosexul" is the intended spelling.

Well

[rossdee]

Would you really want your cup of coffee delivered by drone?

Re:Well

[laurencetux]

would prevent somebody from killing the delivery person due to being below minimal BCL.

New Google Company Slogan

[Anonymous Coward]

Forget "Do No Evil". That's so...lame. The new company motto really describes Google, and what they are best at:

"Google: trimming headcount and shelving initiatives."

Google is on a downward spiral

[Anonymous Coward]

The decisions are part of a broader Alphabet effort to rein in spending and try to turn more experimental projects from loss-making risky bets into real businesses.

 
I see Google being where MS was in the 90's and 2000's. They've been the reigning champ for so long they're more focused on quarterly results and not willing to take any substantial risks to innovate.

Every project they kill makes people less and less likely to try their new services. The whole point of Alphabet was to separate the R&D from the profit driven business. Now it appears that profit driven business is leaking into R&D

Re:Google is on a downward spiral

[Anonymous Coward]

I completely agree. This is so unfortunate as a Alphabet shareholder, as the prospect of that company of growing is now gone. They are just squeezing the profit margin up and they try to do anything that helps in getting short term profits. When the bean counters take over a company it is time to sell the shares while they are still up.

We get your data, you get to spout BS about drones

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> plans were nixed, largely over disagreements about the access to customer data that Alphabet wanted

Well, at least we finally understand the business model behind this "drone delivery" BS: Google gets your customer list, and you get a little PR bump by being able to talk about drones on local TV news.

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[MiaIlhamiaty]

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But my Barista Badge?

[Anonymous Coward]

How am I, a zero hour drone pilot contractor, going to earn my RetailWarrior Barista Badge to work for Starbucks now?

All the tea in China

[RubberDogBone]

What the HELL was Starbucks thinking?

Does China even drink coffee? Would they settle for the crap sold by Starbucks? When China adopts western stuff, they tend to want the best. Which Starbucks is not.

Do they even WANT coffee? What else can Starbucks even sell? Tea?

China pretty much invented tea. Or at least certainly mastered it, centuries ago. They have their own ways of preparing it and drinking it which have NOTHING to do with American concepts of tea, except water is nominally involved. They do not need Starbucks to have tea. They don't want American tea.

What did Starbucks think they could ever possible sell to China? Idiocy.

Re:All the tea in China

[tlhIngan]

China pretty much invented tea. Or at least certainly mastered it, centuries ago. They have their own ways of preparing it and drinking it which have NOTHING to do with American concepts of tea, except water is nominally involved. They do not need Starbucks to have tea. They don't want American tea.

China and India, actually. And Marco Polo. And the Silk Road bringing it to Europe and the Middle East where tea is popular.

And American Tea is really a derivation of English Tea, from the New World days. (Remember the East India Tea Company? Hint: India was part of the British Empire). Of course, then a bunch of people in Boston decided to dump an entire ship's worth of tea in the harbour for some odd reason or other...

Dear Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

You keep advertising copy editor positions, but there's no improvement in the copy editing.

Pie in the sky research

[Alomex]

The problem with "pie in the sky" research is that for every honest-to-god researcher you attract a dozen charlatans that promise you the world in your hand in ten years. Then the system selects for the best charlatans, the ones that make you believe the breakthrough is around the corner, even though there is no hard evidence for it. The MIT Media Lab blew through billions of dollars in this mode, with little to show for it.

AI has gone through several cycles of this, with the end result that generally weaker students were being attracted to it. One of the reasons AI is more successful today is that the last AI winter was so severe that weak students stopped going to AI, so what was left is honest smart researchers spending all their time in science instead of press releases.

As deep learning becomes more popular we see the return of the weaker minds, with flashy results of little or no practical significance, but plenty of PR value.

You know the type, the people who tell you a slogan and make it seem like they have a solution (ahem Yes we can, Make America great again ahem), but when you stop and think about you realize they were full of "ideas" and bereft of execution.

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[Instituto SC]

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