In what many industry observers had suspected, Google confirmed on April 14 that it has purchased drone maker Titan Aerospace in its latest acquisition that sees the Mountain View-based company take to sky. Titan is a producer of high-altitude drones and the purchase comes after Facebook's announcement that it was looking at providing Internet to areas not currently receiving mobile signals via drones.
The move aims to put Google into a position to compete in the fast-growing industry, which has already seen leading companies publicly voice their support for drone technology and what it can do for their individual needs. Google, arguably the most versatile tech company of late, believes that it can master drone technology and beat out Facebook in any attempt to dominate the market.
There was no immediate report of how much money Google spent on the solar-powered drone company, but Google did say that its acquisition will help boost its ability to collect aerial images from higher up.
Titan has been in existence for around two years.
"Titan Aerospace and Google share a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world. It's still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation. It's why we're so excited to welcome Titan Aerospace to the Google family," a Google spokesman said in confirming the reports.
Titan's 20 person team will now join Google's Project Loon, a project aimed at developing and constructing high-altitude balloons that are able to deliver Internet signals to parts of the world that have no access to the Internet, a direct push into what Facebook plans to do with drones.
Although the ambitions are readily apparent, using the technology may still be ways away from fruition, but the layout has been put forward to get where Google believes it can.
Drone technology remains controversial to the public, after numerous reports of the United States military using drones for what it has described as "surgical" strikes in order to "take out" terrorist targets. However, reports have repeatedly indicated that the drone attacks have killed a large number of civilians in the attacks.
This has led to apprehension over drone use for public or private purposes, but companies believe that once they prove the drones are for peaceful means it will help change and move the technology forward.
