Alphabet Ends Titan Drone Project. What Now?

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

after they closes up shop on its pay and in turn and drove project is the moon shot dead in a ... news brief ... the Wall Street Journal ... well this is the law Street Journal's tech news briefing and Tanya priestess to Newark ... after that has officially said that he checked on an effort to beam Internet service from high flying drones this of course was part of several attends to renewed less promising initiatives and focus on those more likely to make a profit ... the drone project called Thai in cold in early twenty sixteen although Gugle confirmed the move only this week but the very latest from the law Street Journal's Jack Nicas he joins us from our sentences go Bureau welcome Jack thanks for having me so to quote the age old adage money Cox is that with all comes down to hear Jack ... will potentially we are certainly seeing ... him a scaling back that ... you are an alphabet ... of some of its most ambitious projects ... which it calls moonshots ... and most recently ... we ... have seen the ... shattering of product Titan which was a ... obviously solar powered drone that was designed to be me Internet ... as it flew around her ... um ... certainly a you know developing that's for drone would be expensive um but this is a company with a lot of money ... it may be ... also be about consolidating ... like minded efforts ... they also have a similar project ... to be an internet from pollutants so ... um ... there may be some ... strategy here about not having to duplicative ... projects to catch it ... and there are other initiatives alphabet is scaling back on as well right it's not just taking ... yes I mean certainly we have seen a series of of the store closures and ... most recently ... I'm ... the company ... stopped plans to make a modular smartphone ... it is scaling back its plans to deliver high speed internet ... Goebel fire ... it also has close to the robotics effort ... aam and also as I'm fired ... the heads of umm ... into a pre drawn up for Dick cetera so there is in a series of projects that ... aam are getting scaled back from what ... we were once ... envisioned ... and most of these cases involve things that are ... of the futuristic an Indian dishes it and you mention briefly Omnia project Bellew in any other initiates still on the backburner for Gugle acts yes there's a series of ... projects and there are probably many that we don't know about the only ... aam publicize projects once ... they get to a certain point of success ... the ones we do know about our project moon ... which is this that God ... is the effort to deliver Internet from high altitude balloons there's also the delivery room project which is dubbed ... Project Wing pecan there's another ... an effort ... to appease the Reinvents ... um wind turbines and using that ... what they call kites but what are essentially drones in essentially is connecting are drawn to a tether ... adding a fly in circles ... on a turbine to create power ... aam and I can be aided by the wind ... Invesco project with the name ... um and so when and most recently we saw ... their self driving car project ... of cortical graduate from the research lab X into its own unit now called away Mo ... and certainly there are a series of other products annex that we don't know about it and if they've publicized subpoena plans to ... I aam ... or just wanted to be killed ... that involved ... Merkel four main ... cargo Glympse ... turning seawater into fuel ... and another in dishes products but that were speaking to the law Street Journal's Jack in a case about half of its move to shut down its tried and true projects ... you're listening to the law Street Journal's techies briefing ... thanks for listening everyone says Jack ... really think about this Teekay's often time I like to check in the peanut gallery she would tech folks are saying on line or whatnot and into the tech world is all a Twitter with some folks saying that that Gugle moonshot eased ADM's curious what your thoughts on that I think that is a very strong statement ... the dramatic we have to recognize that ... this company is still pursuing ... some very very ambitious projects including self driving cars which it has had a lot of success with ... the note also has ... I aam ... you know ... the products in software such as artificial intelligence that I'm could have very big ... impacts on life today ... and the other thing is Google ... you know has always been a company that is known for throwing many things that the wall The seeing if they stick ... and it's not shy about um ... trying seemingly bizarre things and killing them land ... it seems that they're not going to work with are not going to be commercially viable ... so while other companies are far more selective about what they work on Google is famous ... for ... trying you many many many things and ... to see these things ... I'll ... be close to ... it is certainly news when it happens and we are seeing ... more of that recently as that there's a new era financial discipline of the company ... however I think it's too strong to say that the moon shot is dead ... Eric and ... technique is thanks as always for the time thank you thanks again to the Journal's Jack Nicas for joining us that does it for this edition of the law Street Journal's tech news briefing and Tanya priestess in your ... thanks for listening ... for more podcast check this out at WSJ dot com slashed by CAS become a subscriber and I ITINs stitcher spa to find and now look