People have accused Google of a lot of things, but nobody can accuse the company of not being ambitious or forward-looking.
Google already has a robot lab, a company that is trying to cure aging, and Google[x], which is behind high-tech initiatives like Google Glass, self-driving cars, Internet balloons, smart contact lenses, and delivery drones.
Now, they’re reportedly trying to tackle additional long-term issues with another branch: Google Y. This would fall under a Larry Page-led “Google 2.0” initiative, and has already involved over a hundred of the company’s employees.
Among challenges Google wants to solve with Google Y are new approaches to airports and even to how actual cities work.
The Information has the story (behind its paywall) here.
Google [x] is for moonshot ideas, as Google likes to say. From the sound of it, Google Y is more Earth-focused with the aim of improving experiences for existing things as opposed to just coming up with cool new things. At least that’s the initial impression I get.
We’ll no doubt be hearing plenty more about all of this as time goes on. In the meantime, Google is making progress on a lot of its other ambitious projects. Calico (the anti-aging company), for example, recently partnered with AbbVie, and is opening an R&D facility. A couple months ago, Google inked a major deal with drugmaker Novartis to further the contact lens initiative.
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