Just a month after Facebook announced their plans to buy Titan Aerospace, the company, which designs solar-powered drones, and supply unlimited wireless internet network even at the most remote areas of the world, the tech giant Google jumped in first and bought it instead. Although the future plans for the self-powered flying machines are not yet revealed, rumor has it that Google might use them to acquire high resolution images to monitor the earth surface and environmental damage, provide wireless internet access, and/or mount wind turbines on them.
The announcement that is still hot out of Google’s oven was greeted by both supporters and enemies. For Titan Aerospace this is definitely the deal of the century, but many see it as a breach of their privacy among other things. The origin of most doubts is probably the fact that this is not the first company of this kind that the tech giant purchases, in fact it is the 13th member of “Google’s Robot Army“. What is also interesting is why Google felt such urge to compete with Facebook and top up their most likely extremely high offer, all for being the first to put their hands on the solar-powered larger than Boeing dragonfly-shaped drones.
In any way, leaving conspiracy theories aside, indeed the solar-powered drones do open numerous possibilities to help people around the world. For starters, they could provide means for monitoring post-disaster locations, oil spills, and even deforestation thanks to sensors mounted on board and providing real-time imagery. In addition, they could be used as a platform for the products of another one of Google’s projects that looks to develop much more efficient airborne wind turbines.
It is true that although the numerous products that Google provides are extremely useful, sometimes they do give the feeling that we are being monitored constantly. However, as green optimists, we should only hope that the drones would be put into only good for the environment and society uses.
Image (c) Titan Aerospace
