Google Final Case Study Graham Henderson
Google Wallet is a very convenient option to condense your physical wallet as it can store all of your loyalty programs such as Orbitz, Walgreens, Alaska Airlines and many more. You can easily add all your loyalty programs to your Google wallet by simply scanning the cards or instantly join new programs in the app. Another great benefit of this app is that you can store your discounts and coupons on your phone that you can redeem at your convenience. Select stores accept contactless payments which allow you to pay with your wallet balance or with your preferred credit or debit card. Google wallet also has a card you can use to make purchases with no fee where MasterCard is accepted. It will take the money from your wallet balance or you can remove cash at ATMs. Sending money to friends or loved ones is very easy with Google Wallet. Similar to PayPal, you can send funds from either your bank account or from your wallet balance. There are no fees when sending money and you can also use Gmail to send money as well. If you decide to use a credit or debit card then a 2.9% fee per transaction is applied. Once you receive the money, you can use it instantly with your Google Wallet Card or transfer the money to your bank account. To keep track of where your money is going, you will be notified immediately after you send or receive money and after every Google Wallet Card transaction. You can also track all of your transactions using the app or at wallet.google.com. One of the best reasons to use Google Wallet is the speed of making a purchase. When making a purchase on a mobile app and website, you can finalize your payment with as few as two clicks. One of the big issues when you are talking about Google Wallet is the security. Obviously we have talked about how convenient the app is but with convenience presents risk. A PIN is required to be entered before you make a purchase and those can be cracked via an exhaustive numerical search. If someone was to obtain the correct PIN, criminals could use a Google-Wallet-enabled phone to make purchases. The PIN is also stored on the physical phone and not on a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip. The tap and pay option that is one of the big attractions of Google Wallet is not available on all phones and carriers unfortunately at this time. Customers who use AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile are unable to take advantage of the Wallet’s NFC payment features. This has been the case since Google Wallet was released and nothing has been released saying that this is changing anytime soon. With the release of the new Nexus 7 in 2013, there was no secure element included and some view this as Google’s sign of defeat. I guess time will only tell if this Google technology will take hold and challenge Bit Coin in the future as a new way to pay bills and exchange funds.
Google Glass is a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display. It is now lighter than the average pair of sunglasses and comes equipped with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Google Glass has many benefits that can help you depending on what situation you might be in. GolfSight is one of them as it’s a golf GPS rangefinder that gives you accurate pin distance, course data, and scoring information. It also offers navigation whether you are in a car, bike or just walking with turn-by-turn instructions to keep you on course of your destination. Strava Run is designed to track your run times with GPS, analyze your performance, set new personal records and easily compare with your friends to see how you stack up with them. Sending messages with Google Glass is extremely easy and hands free. Simply say which contact you want to message and then voice the message. Playing music through your Glass is as simple as sending a message, all you need to say is “ok glass, listen to” and instantly you are listening to your favorite bands. And with 16GB of storage on the Glass, you can store up to 3800 MP3’s directly on your Google Glass. One issue that some people have is the price tag which is $1500 per pair. With such a steep price, it will make owning a pair of these much more difficult. On 15 April, 2014 Google sold a limited amount of them to the public but currently you cannot purchase these. More of the features include a touchpad which is located on the side of Google Glass which allows the users to control the device by swiping through a timeline-like interface displayed on the screen. If you slide forward it will show you past events, phone calls, Google+ circle updates. If you slide it backwards then it shows current events, weather and Facebook notifications. The camera has the ability to take photos and record HD videos at 720p. It’s a unique video as it will record everything you see from a first person perspective. It also has Wi-Fi built in and uses 802.11b/g technology. You can turn on the Glass as easy as tilting your head 30 degrees upward or by tapping the touchpad. You can control many functions just with your voice such as “Take a picture”, “Record a video”, “Hangout with [person/Google+ circle]”, “Google ‘What year was Apple founded?”, and “Send a message to Grace”. Some have concerns on the safety of wearing Google Glass while operating a vehicle and the UK has banned their country from using them while driving, deeming that it’s careless driving. Not everyone is thrilled about the new breakthrough in technology though. There has been a report of a woman pulling a pair of Google Glass from someone’s face and smashing them on the ground. Many people are protesting Google and the direction they are going. Some claim that the ability to take photos and videos without someone’s consent invades privacy.
Google Robotics is creating remarkable robots that are capable of many amazing things. They have created a robot that can weld for up to 9 straight hours. Lately Google has been buying up quite a lot of robotics companies. They have been very tight lipped when it comes to disclosing information about what robots they are creating. They have created a robot dog named BigDog which is being developed to help soldiers carry heavy equipment in the field. It can follow a human, walk across wet, sandy or rocky terrain also. One concern that many people have with robots is the need for humans if a robot can do the job better. This is a scary thought as the economy is already hurting and jobs are difficult to find. By 2013 there will be 1.2 million industrial robots working worldwide, which is one robot for every 5,000 people. Pharmacies have started using robotics to fill prescriptions. The UCSF Medical Center recently launched robotics in two UCSF hospitals. Once the UCSF physicians and pharmacists submit the prescription into the computer, the robot picks packages and dispenses individual doses of pills. In over a year the robot has prepared over 350,000 doses of medication without error. Legal work has been aided by robots as well with software that can do the job for a fraction of the time or price that a human would require. The New York Times reported that a company in California provided software that helped analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000. NASA has begun creating astronauts equipped with a wide array of sensors and five fingered hands. Initially it will handle simple jobs such as cleaning the space station and assisting humans in space operations. One day the goal is to have the robot venture outside the station to help with repairs or perform scientific work. The military has started to use robots as the MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) was created by Foster-Miller. It is equipped with a GPS monitor and can be programmed to disarm bombs, armed with weapons to fire and differentiate between fire and no-fire zones. It can also open doors and drag out injured bodies. The United States Air Force uses an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called a MQ-9 Reaper which was formerly named Predator B. The Reaper can carry 15 times more ordnance payload and cruise at almost three times the speed of the MQ-1 Predator. It can travel at 300 miles per hour and has a cruising speed of 300 mph. It is remotely controlled but is capable of autonomous flight operations. The Reaper can be armed with a variety of weaponry, including Hellfire missiles and 500-lb laser-guided bombs and can take surveillance. The Reaper has an endurance of up to 12 hours of flight. These are all examples of how robotics is changing our world for the better or the worse. Some may not agree with this technology but its coming and it’s best to just prepare for it.
Google’s Self Driving cars maintain the speed limit it has stored on its maps and it maintains its distance from other vehicles with the use of system sensors. The software powering Google’s cars is called Google Chauffeur. The idea of the driverless car was actually started by a team of Stanford students who entered the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and won $2 million prize money from the United States Department of Defense. The team consisted of 15 engineers working for Google. Nevada was the first state to legalize the use of autonomous cars in May 2012. The license was issued to a Toyota Prius modified with Google’s experimental driverless technology. One of the issues with a self-driving car is that it’s very expensive to equip a vehicle with the necessary equipment to make it functional. Google’s robotic cars have roughly $150,000 in equipment including a 64-beam laser radar system which costs $70,000. A range finder is mounted on the top of the vehicle which generates a detailed 3D map of the environment. The car will then take those generated maps and combines them with maps around the world producing data models which allow the car to drive itself. The vehicle also uses other sensors to help it drive including four radars, mounted on the front and rear bumpers, that allow the car to see far enough in front to be able to deal with fast traffic on freeways. There is also a camera positioned near the rear-view mirror that detects traffic lights. It’s also equipped with a GPS, inertial measurement unit and wheel encoder, that can determine the location of the vehicle and keep track of its movements. Before the autonomous vehicle is driven, Google engineers drive along the route one or more times to gather data about the environment. Once the vehicle is driving itself, it will compare the data that it previously recorded to determine pedestrians from stationary objects like poles and buildings. Google is using a dozen different drivers all with unblemished driving records to be behind the wheel even though they aren’t actually driving. A Google engineer is in the passenger’s seat while the car is driving. A system is set up which will allow a human driver to take control of the car by simply pressing on the break or moving the steering wheel. This system works similar to the way cruise control works in standard cars. The known cars so far that have been equipped with the technology to drive itself consist of Toyota Prius, Audi TT and Lexus RX450h. In 2012, Google posted a video of a self-driving Toyota Prius driving around a man who was legally blind. The route took him from his home to a drive-through restaurant, then to a dry cleaning store and then back home. In 2012, the team announced that they have logged over 300,000 autonomous-driving miles accident free. They usually have at least a dozen cars on the road at any given time and have started to test them with single drivers instead of in pairs. As of December 2013, four states have passed laws permitting autonomous cars, Nevada, Florida, California and Michigan.
Google has been investing in a wide range of green energy companies, including solar, wind and geothermal plants. Google Energy spent $38.8 million for two wind farms in North Dakota. The two locations will generate 169.5 megawatts of power, enough to supply 55,000 homes with solar power. One of Google’s goals is to power the company with 100% renewable energy. Currently the company is using renewable energy to power over 34% of all operations. Not only does it have its environmental benefits but it’s a great business opportunity. The company uses its own cutting edge technology on their campuses to see how it is progressing in person. They use 1.9 megawatts solar array to power the campuses but also incorporated a 970 kilowatts cogeneration unit. This unit runs off the local landfill gas that also removes methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas. It converts this into electricity and heat which is used on the campus. Another device they use on the campus is an efficient ground source heat pump and solar water heating to provide hot water for the buildings. Google is always pursuing new and innovative ideas to make a return on an investment (ROI). If someone has a great idea the company will consider it and see if a ROI is possible. For example, the 1.7 MW solar installations they implemented in 2007 produces over 3,000,000 kWh of clean energy per year, saving Google a great deal in energy costs and reducing the carbon footprint. Google is always searching for new ways to generate clean and efficient energy. The company is looking for places where it can make an impact but also generate a return on its investment. The ultimate goal for Google is to make renewable energy cheaper than coal. This is hopefully going to happen in the next couple years. Google is expanding its employees in its pursue of finding cheaper energy. The company is hiring five new people with one being charged with managing Google’s own energy usage to help keep the costs down and efficient. Three of those people will be in charge of a renewable energy engineering team that will be responsible for evaluating and recommending investments for the company and also develop new technologies and theories. The three person team consists of a head of renewable energy engineering to lead the team, an engineer who specializes in early-stage technology and a mechanical engineer who conducts design and manufacturing. It’s difficult to find financing for renewable energy and it’s been a significant roadblock to the expansion of renewable energy. Google has now signed seven contracts for 1040 MW of wind energy, which is enough to power 320,000 U.S. homes. This is key for the long-term goal of powering all operations with 100% renewable energy. The power that is purchased from wind farms is incorporated into local power grids, increasing the percentage of renewable electricity on the grids and flows to Google’s data centers nearby. As for payments they provide certainty on the payments for their power, which allows the customer to get additional financing to build new projects. References
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