Google VP Announces Closer Launch Date For Project Titan

Earlier today at the Mobile World Congress, Google has announced that it is getting closer to officially launching solar-powered drones, under the name Project Titan; sending its first fleet into the sky sometime this year.

Senior VP at Google, Sunar Pichai, who oversees Android, Chrome and Google apps; outlined how the company is working on three big programs aimed at connecting a majority of the 4 billion people still without internet access. Project Titan will fly lightweight, solar-powered airplanes to act as satellites. The company jumped in first, ahead of rumors that Facebook was pursuing a similar venture. The drones will be programmed to hover above certain areas to supply connectivity, this technology could also be used to bring access to locations affected by natural disasters.

This isn’t the first time Google has aimed for the skies, their previous venture Project Loon involved a similar set up, but utilising balloons instead of controllable drones. The balloons cover greater areas, where the aircraft would focus on smaller, more precise areas.

“When I first heard the idea, I thought it was a crazy idea, and these balloons are really big,” Pichai said. “The notion that you can run these things to scale, which sounds like science fiction… but we will see a lot of progress in the next few years where we can turn it into a real service for users.”

Pichai said that the move for big companies like Facebook and its Internet.org initiative to get more people in remote regions to access the web is a strong and important step. “I’m glad companies like Facebook and others around the world are working on these types of technologies,” he said.

Thanks to Mashable for this information