X Development

After a successful use of free-space optical communication (FSOC) as a part of Project Loon,[14] X decided to conduct more tests called Taara[15] in rural areas of India.

[20] The intended purpose of Project Glass products is hands-free display of information currently available to most smartphone users,[21] and interaction with the Internet via natural language voice commands.

Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley, which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and a US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.

It uses wireless routers in balloons that are above the weather and plans to give access to the internet to those who can't reach it or are in need of help.

At the end of the tether is a small bundle of electronics which detects that the package has hit the ground, detaches from the delivery, and is pulled back up into the body of the vehicle.

[31] Malta was started in July 2017 to develop renewable energy storage systems by utilizing tanks of molten salt.

[33] Malta Inc. graduated from X in December 2018 with plans to develop a large-scale test of the technology for future commercial applications.

Projects that X has considered and rejected include a space elevator, which was deemed to be currently infeasible;[58] a hoverboard, which was determined to be too costly relative to the societal benefits;[59] a user-safe jetpack, which was thought to be too loud and energy-wasting;[60] and teleportation, which was found to violate the laws of physics.

On May 17, 2018, an internal video entitled The Selfish Ledger was leaked by The Verge, regarding reshaping society through total data collection.

In 2013, X acquired Makani Power, a US company which developed tethered wings/kites with mounted wind turbines for low cost renewable energy generation.

A reporter from Bloomberg Businessweek visited the site in 2013 and described it as "ordinary two-story red-brick buildings about a half-mile from Google's main campus.

"[7] On 25 October 2018, The New York Times published an exposé entitled "How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the 'Father of Android'".

[66] A week after the article appeared, Google X executive Rich DeVaul resigned pursuant to a complaint of sexual harassment.

Google Glass with black frames for prescription lenses
A Waymo self-driving car on the road in Mountain View
A Project Loon research balloon