Google plans to sell the division of Boston Dynamics

Today it became known about Alphabet plans to sell the company Boston Dynamics, specializing in the production of robots and absorbed just three years ago, as reported by the news agency Bloomberg. Potential buyers are Amazon and Toyota. The first one already uses robots in its own storage facilities and distribution centers.

The takeover of Boston Dynamics took place in 2013 by Google as part of the Replicant division, which is engaged in the development of robotic solutions. But Replicant has been in an incomprehensible state for almost a year after the departure of chief architect Andy Rubin. At the time of the creation of Alphabet and the restructuring of Google, many thought that Replicant would separate into a separate company, but in the end it merged with Google X. Apparently, even then Boston Dynamics did not enter into this division and Alphabet management then considered the possibility of selling.
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As part of the latest developments, Boston Dynamics released several videos demonstrating their own robots - the developers clearly showed their ability to stabilize in “field” conditions, and in some tests knocked them with kicks to show their ability to adapt to the changing environment.



Despite impressive prototypes of robots, Boston Dynamics was not able to offer real products for release in the near future, and also expressed a reluctance to cooperate with other Google engineers in Tokyo and California.



In November, the network got documents from the meeting between the heads of departments. They contained information on the position of Alphabet Head Advisor Larry Page Jonathan Rosenberg (at the time of the meeting he headed Replicant), who met with the staff of Boston Dynamics, explaining the company's position, which cannot spend 30% of resources on projects that require ten years to implement .

“We, as a startup of this size, cannot afford to spend 30% of resources on things that require ten years to develop. We need to consider something that will be released in the near future and will be able to cover such costs, ”said Jonathan Rosenberg.

As for cooperation with other divisions of Google, then everything is ambiguous. Thus, Aaron Edsinger, director of the development of robotic solutions for Google, told about the proposal to develop an energy-efficient quadcopter together with Boston Dynamics, but eventually ran into the reluctance of any kind of cooperation.

The reaction of the audience to the demonstration of the Boston Dynamics robots has likewise become a problem for Google’s reputation.

"You can see the excitement among specialized magazines and websites, but we also see a negative reaction about the potential threat posed by robots capable of taking people's jobs," said communication director Corney Hon.

Google representatives have not yet commented on this information, which is typical of rumors of such a plan.