Artificial intelligence-infused navigation software has significantly sped up plans to deploy Project Loon Internet balloons to serve remote regions of the world.
Word that being able to more smartly guide high-altitude balloons promised to improve coverage while curbing cost came as Loon hit headwinds in some locales where it has been testing the technology.
"Out timelines are starting to move up on how we can do more for the world sooner," said Astro Teller, who heads the team at the Alphabet unit X, in charge of "moonshot" projects of the technology giant.
"We are looking to move quickly, but to move thoughtfully," Teller told a small group of reporters inside a former Silicon Valley shopping centre transformed into a "moonshot factory."
The acceleration was credited to software leaps that allow Internet-serving balloons to ride high-altitude winds to ideal locations or loop in patterns that create consistent webs of Internet coverage in the sky.
Part of the money-making vision for Loon would be to get revenue from telecom operators for extending their reach.Teller said Loon is one of the more mature projects at X and that it "would be a natural state to graduate into its own company" but there were no plans at the moment for that to happen.
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