The Project Wing delivery drone Google revealed to the world last August is no more. Instead of going head to head with Amazon's drone initiative, the Google X team behind the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) decided to scrap its plans and pursue a different design. Google's "Captain of Moonshots" Astro Teller, who leads its secretive X lab, revealed to a South By Southwest crowd Tuesday how the decision came about. It began with CEO Larry Page giving his team a tough mission: He wanted a prototype that could deliver goods to non-Google employees within 5 months. Teller and his crew only had one design that they could build that quickly, and even though they knew it wouldn't be right, they went ahead with it anyway. See also: Google Challenges Amazon's Drone Delivery Program With Project Wing It might sound odd to proceed with a project that was destined to fail, but Teller considers failure an integral part of the process at Google X. In fact, he says it's a key ingredient for success.... - Web2024