Google Technologies in Research and Development Google is currently spending billions on research and development in order to stay competitive in the tech industry. This paper will discuss five technologies that Google is currently working on. These are: 1) the Self-Driving Automobile, 2) Project Wing (a drone delivery project), 3) Smart Contact Lenses, 4) Project Loon (which aims to provide Internet service via balloon), and 5) Google Nest—aka Home Automation and Smart Thermostats.

Self-Driving Automobile

The self-driving or autonomous automobile is a technology that major auto manufacturers like Tesla and Uber are currently working on. Google’s self-driving automobile is known as Waymo, which stands for “a new way forward in mobility” (Waymo, 2018). The self-driving car is believed to be a solution to accident rate, which indicates that almost all but 10% of all car accidents are caused by operator error (Mearian, 2013). Thus, the autonomous vehicle is meant to reduce the rate of operator risk. However, even self-driving cars get into accidents and the latest—this one by Uber—resulted in the death of a pedestrian who was run over by the self-driving Uber car (Hutchinson & Cook, 2018). The safety features touted by the autonomous car industry appear less robust and stout in the face of accidents like this one—and that makes this one of the main challenges that Google faces with its Waymo project.

Google’s autonomous car technology is designed to get commuters around where they need to go, safely and affordably, without the commuter actually having to drive the car. The car will drive itself. This type of technology already exists in some cars—like in Tesla’s—and other autos have self-parking options that allow the car to park itself using sensors and cameras so that the driver does not have to try to see how close he is getting to other objects using rear view mirrors. The car’s technology does it all. Google is now in the testing phase of this technology, the development of which got underway in 2009 (Waymo, 2018). Using software and sensors that are strategically placed in the car, Google’s autonomous vehicle will identify other cars, road work, pedestrians, and anything else that is around it from a distance of 300 yards. The car’s software is programmed to react to every type of encounter as the coding algorithms within the software are based on data collected from millions of real-world experiences (Waymo, 2018).

Still, safety is a top concern—especially in the light of Uber’s suspension of all testing in the wake of the death of a pedestrian struck by a self-driving Uber car. Google must find a way to ensure a now skeptical public that autonomous vehicles are safe. Overcoming this challenge will require Google to do more extensive testing and to take part in a marketing campaign designed to reassure skeptical consumers.

At the same time, some consumers actually enjoy driving themselves and may balk at this type of intrusive technology. Thus, while the potential positive impacts of this technology on society are that, theoretically, it makes roads safer for drivers and pedestrians (though that still remains to be seen), the negative impacts are that it robs drivers of the delight of being able to drive a car themselves and further places limitations on what was once thought to be a free society—especially if the autonomous car is ruled the only means of lawful transportation in the coming years. If this happens, Google could face some serious backlash from car enthusiasts all over the country. So though Bailey (2014) claims there is a moral imperative for autonomous cars to be ushered in, the reality is that this imperative is largely idealistic and utopian. The technology’s ability is far from guaranteed.

Project Wing

Project wing is Google’s drone-based delivery system project that is designed to allow packages to be delivered by drones instead of by people in FedEx, UPS or USPS trucks (Ingraham, 2014). The drones have their routes programmed into them ahead of time and then, like the autonomous cars (drones are essentially like the self-driving vehicles of the sky), they use sensors and software to get where they are going. To facilitate and support navigation, Google is developing a traffic management platform that is meant to make this delivery system safe for the drones, for people on the ground and in the skies, and for other aircraft (Project...

Safety is the number one concern: if drones fly into other obstacles or cause problems for sky traffic, there is a considerable risk to allowing drones guided by software and overseen by an autonomous platform to operate in the skies. Google will have to prove that its products are safe with extensive testing that goes on for years.
Suggestions for overcoming this challenge are to simply get to the testing phase and work out all the problems that arise as they arise. Also, it may be wise to simply forego the autonomous traffic management platform and have people actually staff this platform just like airlines use people to control air traffic. In spite of what some claim about accidents being caused by operator error, software and robots are still designed by people and errors can easily be programmed into a machine. So having an intelligent person on stand-by could actuall work to reduce risk.

The positives of this technology are that it allows packages to be delivered to otherwise hard to reach and out of the way areas. It can save companies time and money when it comes to making deliveries on time. It can also help people by getting important packages—such as medicine—to people in a shorter amount of time (Project Wing, 2018). This technology is also unlikely to have a negative footprint on the environment, other than in terms of e-waste if drones are not recycled. The negative impact of this technology is that is could lead to the replacement of more delivery jobs by robots—drones that are pre-programmed to fly to the scheduled destination. The more reliant on robots that society becomes, the less efficient it may also become in terms of employing people.

The ethical and moral impact of this technology is a two-way sword: on the one hand, it could help people in need obtain the deliveries they require in a timely manner. On the other hand, this technology has the potential to put a lot of people out of work because if a robot can do it more cheaply and quickly, why hire a person and have to pay all those expenses? In fact, this was Uber’s aim in developing the autonomous car—with self-driving vehicles it believed it could save money by not having to pay actual drivers. This certainly seems unethical from a humanist perspective.

Smart Contact Lenses

Google’s smart contact lenses were initiated in 2014 (Otis & Parviz, 2014) and are designed to help people who suffer from diabetes to more effectively monitor their blood sugar levels (Farandos, Yetisen, Monteiro et al., 2014). The lens itself has a small microchip with a glucose sensor that sits in between two layers of the contact lens. The sensor measures glucose levels in the tears of the eye and in this way it assists people with diabetes in knowing where their blood sugar levels are throughout the day. The lenses then will communicate with an early warning system that allows the wearer to be alerted if the chip detects a drop in blood sugar so that the individual can take appropriate action to address the situation.

The challenges that Google could face in implementing this technology stem mainly from the FDA, which has oversight of all health-related products (Otis & Parviz, 2014). For this one, there will have to be extensive testing conducted in order to show that the product is safe and effective (i.e., that it actually does what it says it will do). In other words, Google is in the same boat with this product that it is in with its other products, like the drone and the autonomous car—both of which have to be proven to be safe and effective before they will be adopted by the mainstream market.

Suggestions for overcoming these challenges are the same: there is no way around testing, so Google must follow FDA protocols and conduct the tests with the appropriate sample sizes in order to show regulators that these lenses work safely and effectively. These tests can take years to study and so it is unlikely that this product will be seen on the shelves anytime soon. However, once all tests and paperwork have been filed and the FDA signs off on the lenses, Google should be good to go with this health care product. It isn’t likely to have an impact on the environment and there are not any ethical or moral issues associated with it, so this product might actually be one of Google’s less controversial ones—and that means…