GoogleX Secret Project - Project Wing

SAN FRANCISCO — The drone wars have officially begun.
By Marco della Cava, USATODAY

Once the exclusive domain of DIYers passionate about buzzing parks and neighbors, tech titans are entering the fray with serious financial and gray-matter resources. Late last year, Amazon's Jeff Bezos showed off his company's drone delivery prototypes, and now Google reveals it has been secretly testing its own drones in Australian cattle country.

Dubbed Project Wing, the three-year mission successfully completed its first delivery Aug. 13, a bundle of Cherry Ripe chocolate bars. Over subsequent days, the team from GoogleX — the Mountain View, Calif.-based search company's exploratory technology arm — air-dropped a range of other farmer-friendly goods, from medicines to first-aid kits.

The flights were a direct response to GoogleX lead and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who challenged his team to make a delivery to a real person via drone.

"We selected these items based on several conversations with local people about how aerial delivery might help them in their jobs," GoogleX said in a release Thursday. "Over the course of the week, the team ran more than 30 successful delivery flights. We are now back in California reviewing what we've learned."

Delivery by drone remains the stuff of the future, in part due to pending Federal Aviation Administration regulations regarding such unmanned flights. There's also the simple matter of people getting used to oversize mechanical mosquitoes buzzing around. But for some drone industry observers, it's a matter of when not if.

"Google's announcement of its planned UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) delivery service further demonstrates (its) potential," says Michael Toscano, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. The technology promises "to revolutionize industries ... whether it is helping farmers survey their fields, search for lost hikers or filming Hollywood movies, UAVs are capable of saving time, money and most importantly, lives."

GoogleX, perhaps best known for its self-driving car project, is calling Project Wing a self-flying vehicle. Headed by Nick Roy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Aeronautics & Astronautics department, the project took flight in earnest in July 2012. A hybrid approach was deemed best, with wings for fast forward flight, and four rotors for vertical take-off and landing. In a drawing provided by Google, the package is seen nestled inside the plane's body, and is lowered by a chain from heights of 120 to 180 feet.

The next two years were then spent refining the prototype before heading to a ranch 100 miles inland from Brisbane. The site was chosen, according to Google, for its "rolling hills, open sky and long-standing history of innovation with UAVs. Out in the countryside, the temperature varies drastically by time of day, winds shift by the second, and weather rolls in unexpectedly."

Although bullish on its progress, Google says consumers shouldn't expect drone deliveries for years. The reasons include complexity ("These planes have much more in common with (our) self-driving cars than the remote-controlled airplanes people fly in parks"), sophistication ("They will fly a preprogrammed route with just the push of a button"), and variety ("Over time, what you want to deliver and where and why will determine what vehicle you want to use").

In the coming months, GoogleX's Project Wing team will drill down deeper on reducing the noise of its drones, improving the precision of its flights and delivery targets ("to the size of a doorstep"), and making sure its self-flying vehicles are able to see and avoid each other while in flight.

To access a video presentation of Google Drones, click Google Secret Drone Project, Project Wing

Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2013 - U.S. Federal Reserve

Many households in the United States have been tested by the Great Recession. Large-scale financial strain at the household level ultimately fed into broader economic challenges for the country, and the completion of the national recovery will ultimately be, in part, a reflection of the well-being of households and consumers. Because households’ finances can change at a rapid pace and new opportunities and risks may emerge, such recovery can be complex to monitor.

To better understand the financial state of U.S. households, the Federal Reserve Board conducted a new consumer survey, the results of which are described in this report. The Survey of Household Economics and Decision making (SHED) was conducted by the Board’s Division of Consumer and Community Affairs in September 2013 using a nationally representative online survey panel. The purpose of the SHED was to capture a snapshot of the financial and economic well-being of U.S. households and the issues they face, as well as to monitor their recovery from the Great Recession and identify perceived risks to their financial stability. It further collected information on households that was not readily available from other sources or was not available in combination with other variables of interest.

Key Findings

This report presents findings from the September 2013 survey. The survey covered a range of topics—including household financial well-being, housing, credit availability, borrowing for education, savings, retirement, and medical expenses—meant to round out the understanding of how households are faring financially.

Overall, the survey found that many households were faring well, but that sizable fractions of the population were at the same time displaying signs of financial stress:

• Over 60 percent of respondents reported that their families are either “doing okay” or “living comfortably” financially; another one-fourth, however, said that they were “just getting by” financially andanother 13 percent said they were struggling to do so

• The effects of the recession continued to be felt by many: 34 percent reported that they were somewhat worse off or much worse off financially than they had been five years earlier, 34 percent reported that they were about the same, and 30 percent reported that they were somewhat or much better off

• 42 percent reported that they had delayed a major purchase or expense directly due to the recession, and 18 percent put off what they considered to be a major life decision as a result of the recession

• Just over half of respondents were putting some portion of their income away in savings, although about one-fifth were spending more than they earned

• 61 percent reported that they expected their income to stay the same in the next 12 months, while 21 percent expected it to increase and 16 percent expected it to decline.  The survey asked questions about a number of specific aspects of households’ financial lives:

To find out more on some of the specifics, you can access the full report at:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/2013-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201407.pdf

Amos B Robinson,

Data Scientist

Robinson Analytics

(919)348-9153 or (804)651-5400 

www.robinsonanalytics.com

Millennials Most Likely To Increase Their Spending This Summer

Forty-five percent of Americans say they are spending more today than they were a year ago, while 18% say they are spending less. Across several demographic categories, the percentage of people who say they are spending more is relatively stable. Among the groups most likely to say they have increased their spending is millennials. Members of Generation X are least likely to say they are spending more.

Amos B Robinson, Data Scientist
Robinson Analytics
www.robinsonanalytics.com

Economic confidence in the U.S. is pretty much flat for the year

Economic confidence in the U.S. is pretty much flat for the year.  But economic confidence in current conditions has improved slightly since January 2014, moving from a -18 to a -14 in August 2014.  However, there has been some slight deteriation of the long-term economic outlook since January 2014, moving from -8 in Janaury to -17 in August 2014.   See graph below.

Amos B Robinson, Data Scientist
Robinson Analytics
www.robinsonanalytics.com