Month: November 2017

Enlarge (credit: Essential)

Andy Rubin, the founder of Google’s Android and current CEO of Essential, is taking a month-long leave from Essential for “personal reasons.” At the same time, a report of an “inappropriate relationship” at Google has surfaced.

A report from The Information claims that Google’s HR division conducted an investigation into Rubin after a complaint and found that he maintained an “inappropriate relationship” with a subordinate while at the Internet giant. Google policy forbids a romantic relationship between supervisors and subordinates, and Google’s investigation apparently concluded that “Rubin’s behavior was improper and showed bad judgement.” (Although Google cofounder Sergey Brin ran the Google Glass team and dated the Google Glass marketing manager, Amanda Rosenberg.)

Rubin’s spokesperson, Mike Sitrick, gave a response to The Information, starting with “Any relationship that Mr. Rubin had while at Google was consensual” (it’s important to mention in a post-Weinstein world that no one disputes this). Google’s investigation reportedly only says that Rubin should not have had a consensual relationship with a subordinate. Sitrick also denies that Rubin was even told about the investigation, saying “Mr. Rubin was never told by Google that he engaged in any misconduct while at Google, and he did not, either while at Google or since.”

Enlarge / Meet Prosthesis, just your ho-hum giant mech racing thing. (credit: Jonathan Tippett / Furrion)

If Jonathan Tippett had his way, the Olympics of the future would showcase more than mere humans—he foresees human-powered robot athletes, too. And at a Toronto tech event this July, the Canadian mechanical engineer asked us to imagine racing events where pilots would embed themselves in massive exo-bionic mechs. Think of it as a pimped-out version of the dual-arm power loader Ripley donned in Alien or maybe the setups now familiar to Titanfall competitors.

We didn’t have to imagine for long. Tippett soon showed off the first entrant into this idea of mech racing, and the gasps made their way around the room quickly. Tippett had introduced us to Prosthesis, an electric-powered, 8,000-pound, 15-foot-tall exo-bionic platform that amplifies the motions of the pilot sitting within a cockpit in the middle of the mech. Built from chromoly steel, Prosthesis can potentially run at 21mph, jump as high as 10 feet, and operate for two hours on a single charge.

This qualifies as an impressive bit of manufacturing and engineering. But talking to Ars months later, Tippett says his mission is more philosophical than many think. “Prosthesis may be framed as a high-tech machine, but it’s an 8,000-pound metaphor on how tech has enabled us to do what we want and the important role humans still play in robotics.”