Google Nest Exodus Continues

An anonymous employee of Nest shares about the worst working conditions at Nest.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google Nest has been in the limelight since quite some time now where two major employees have bid farewell to the company which highlights the chances of an exodus. The tech giant made the acquisition of Nest in 2014 for an amount of $3.2 billion but the company has not monitored much growth since then.

The working conditions are extremely tough and the company also lacks innovation in terms of product developments has ignited employee dissatisfaction under the leadership of Mr. Tony Fadell. The Chief Executive Officer of the company was initially associated to Apple Inc. as the design head for the iPods. The issue with him is that he demands perfection in the products which is a good thing. However, he constantly demands changes in the prototypes which burdens the engineers.

A user on Reddit whose chose to be anonymous on the sub-Reddit /r/Nest talked about how difficult it is to work in Nest due to its present working conditions. As per the engineer, the venture is experiencing a “deathwatch” where revenues and profits are heating up. As per the user, “throwawaynest,” has revenue worth $340 million but its budget is $500 million. So since its acquisition, the company has not come up with any new products and the sales digits are a miss.

News has been circulating in the industry where engineers are willing to switch as soon as their budget deals get over. The company is not providing them the monetary incentives to motivate them to work any further. On the other hand a few aren’t bothered about their withheld money and have already quitted.

The user referred to the CEO and his teammates as “Tony and his goons” who have prescribed deadlines that are unrealistic. Even if engineers come up with good products, the executives then intervene and completely change the course for the product. Right after the change, Mr. Fadell and his mates reprimand the engineers for not getting the specifications correct and label them as incompetent.

As per the engineers, he/she has to be a part of meetings that are absurd and then he has to defend them. The work environment is actually bad where workers overcome their sleeps in corners and cry in washrooms. This has also has an impact on their family life and health. The news regarding the company’s working conditions have spread far and wide which has forced Nest to recruit below par talent to compensate for the employees they’ve lost. It is quite clear that good engineers are not willing to work at Nest whatsoever.

As per the user, the only way Nest has succeeded in making some revenue is via the acquisition of Dropcam. The post was ended with a conclusion that “Now off to the other 4 meetings I have today.”

At this point the search engine giant needs to take charge, if things continue the way they are then Mr. Fadell would also be jobless in the times to come. Alphabet has plans to sell Boston Dynamics (its robotics arm) out since it was not useful for them. They might just repeat this with Nest if required.

Google Maps Comes With Another Android Update

Google Maps offers customized stickers for Android users.

A blog post by Alphabet Inc. that was officially posted by the company unveiled that Google Maps has come up with a new intriguing update where it has added 24 customized stickers to its platform. These stickers can be used to decorate the preferred locations. All the users of Maps can now simply log in via their Google accounts and then view it on all the addresses which are saved by them.

The locations comprise of igloos, an extravagant castle, and a submarine which is yellow in color. It has been assured that every sticker will add a personalized touch to the location. These stickers revealed by the search engine giant can be used for work and home addresses. Other than that, it will also enable users to chalk out the best possible routes, fast directions and a lot more.

The blog post clearly highlights, “To save home and work addresses and other destinations, just make sure you’re signed into your Google account. Then visit the Your Places tab or type an address, then label it. Once setup, you can just type "home", "work" or "gym" in the search bar to get directions and navigate quickly and easily from wherever you are.”

To allow Google users to mark the top locations on its platform is also part and parcel of the update by Google Driving Mode platform. By making use of preset locations to come up with results emphasizes on the tech giant’s use of critical algorithms that provides users with the information regarding the places which have been visited frequently. It is speculated that by personalizing the favorite locations and chalking out the destinations will assist users during the peak traffic hours with the help of Google’s navigation tool.

This update is said to be a relatively small, it is assumed that by coming up with customized stickers, the users will be intrigued and the user experience will enhance. It needs to be noted here that Snapchat and Facebook have been adding stickers to their platform gradually. Thus, the decision made by the company is rather inevitable. The stickers designed by Google are designed in a manner that appeals to the liking of consumers.

The recent stickers are presently limited to Google Maps and so far have only surfaced to the Android devices. Many analysts are confused so as to why the company decided to eliminate the Apple iOS users from this update. However, it is assumed that the remedy will not surface anytime soon.

It is assumed that the company wishes to propagate the popularity of its operating system. Along with having a fresh look, it also shows the company’s desire to keep pace with competitors that are doing quite well in terms of innovation.

Google Maps is doing a lot to bolster its platform. Such updates are necessary to hook the user to the platform and in this age of millennials where Snapchat has taken the industry by a storm, it seems like a rather sane decision.

Google Might Just Make Autonomous Cars A Reality

The company is striving hard to overcome all obstacle in terms of autonomous cars.

Back in February, Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous car venture had to deal with a major setback when its test car collided with a bus. Astonishingly, almost three weeks after the accident took place, the company has been successful in getting a patent that will enable its self-driven cars to locate school buses in the vicinity.

The time to secure a patent of this nature is quite ideal for the company. However, the company claims that it has no such association with the accident that occurred. It is their initiative to make their cars safer. The search engine giant had been working on the technology for quite some time now. The patent was filed almost two years back and got approved on March 8, 2016. The news surfaced by the newsletter of Future of Transportation. The patent basically references to a multi-layer system that will analyze in the basis of signage, color, size along with the complete structure of the car to gauge if it is a school bus.

Google cares about the safety of children thus this is not the first time when they are working on a project of this nature. Last year, during Halloween, the company enhanced its self-driven prototype vehicles to locate children even when they are attired in rather unfamiliar dressing code. On October 31, 2015 when children were all dressed rejoicing Halloween at Mountain View- the testing platform for the company, the tech giant allowed the families to get hands on experience with the cars to “give the software extra practice at recognizing children in all their unique shapes and sizes.”

As per the company it is harder to predict the behavior of children thus the software is tailored in a manner that ensures extra precautionary measures are taken.

Since the time the accident took place, the autonomous cars had to deal with a lot of criticism regarding its credibility. Many ignore the good traits and record of these cars. The cars have surfaced on the roads for testing and have successfully covered 1.45 million miles in the self-driving mode since the program began in FY09.

It is a great breakthrough for the company since they are the only ones successful in reaching a modified stage in terms of self-driven cars production. The companies rival in this domain such as Apple Inc. and Ford Motors are still quite behind by just managing to be in the planning phase. The industry giant’s like Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and executives belonging to Google have timely mentioned that autonomous cars will hit the roads in the fiscal year of 2020. Thus, there is not much time before we see these self-driven cars being used by the masses.

The technology is rather futuristic and there are several reservations associated to it which makes it under immense scrutiny all the time. However, the company is gradually overcoming all the obstacles that come its way so that they can achieve their goal of transforming the automotive industry in the times to come.