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Facebook dismantles its efforts to build its jet-plane size drones that provide wireless Internet to the developing world, and lay off it on Tuesday announced a major retreat from what had been an ambitious and far-reaching initiative in the world. ;business.
These drones were being built by Facebook's Aquila project, a highly publicized part of its ongoing global connectivity efforts. Now, rather than building so-called HAPS (high-altitude platform stations), like the Aquila drone in-house, Facebook will focus on developing the underlying technologies.
"We have decided that the time has come to focus on the next technical and regulatory challenges for HAPS connectivity," writes Yael Maguire in a blog post. "This means that we will not design and build our own planes and, as a result, we have closed our facilities at Bridgewater."
Business Insider understands that 16 employees were fired as a result of this move.
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The announcement of Facebook comes after Business Insider reported earlier on Tuesday the upheavals in the Aquila project. He lost his longtime boss, Andrew Cox, in May, and informed his partners about a possible overhaul of his drones last year.
The vision behind Aquila was to provide wireless air-based internet to parts of the world without traditional connectivity infrastructure, and Facebook says it does not abandon these efforts entirely. He will now focus on building specific components such as batteries and control computers for other air vehicles, although he will no longer build these planes themselves.
The announcement of Facebook marks a step back from what had been an extremely ambitious but troubled project. The first published test flight landed on Facebook at the center of a media storm after failing to reveal to the public that it had crashed at the landing. A second test flight, although more successful, still caused damage to the aircraft on landing, and the propellers could not function properly.
Internal emails obtained by Business Insider indicate that in 2017, the company considered a new design of the unmanned aerial vehicle before making the decision to abandon it entirely, but obviously this was not the case. not enough to save the project.
These emails also revealed that Facebook has explored the possibility of building a drone base in a futuristic spaceport in the New Mexico desert, but ultimately abandoned those efforts amidst discussions about the potential overhaul.
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In 2014, Facebook acquired a UAV company based in Bridgewater, England, for nearly $ 20 million, and its leader, Andrew Cox, became the founder and leader of the Aquila project. But the decision to move away from construction vehicles means that Facebook is closing the Bridgewater facility where drones have been developed.
"While our goal of HAPS connectivity has changed, we remain as committed to addressing the three major barriers to connectivity: availability, affordability, and awareness," wrote Maguire on Tuesday.
"We have already connected nearly 100 million people through our efforts, and we continue to invest in the development of various next-generation technologies and programs, ranging from programs such as Express Wi-Fi to new technologies such as Terragraph. the almost four billion people in the world who still do not have access to the Internet. "
In November 2017, Facebook also said that he was working with Airbus on HAPS. Now that he no longer has his own flying plane, these partnerships will be of crucial importance.
Do you work on Facebook? Know more? Contact the author by email at [email protected], via Signal at +1 (650) 636-6268, or via Twitter DM at @robaeprice.
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