Former Apple expert now leads battery team in Google

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By Larry Banks

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, there is a small time of four people working on battery technology within Google X, and it’s led by former Apple battery expert Dr. Ramesh Bhardwaj. The group was started in 2012 with the aim of researching how other companies’ technology could be used in Google products, but sources say that the team has expanded to look at technology that Google can develop itself.

Google battery research led by ex-Apple expert

The battery research conducted by Google comes as no surprise considering Google’s move into consumer electronics. formerly a search engine company, Google has more recently expanded to offer its own smartphones made in partnership with Android OEMs like Motorola and LG, and also introduced their own technologies that are dependent on battery technology. Google Glass, Project Loon, and the self-driving car are examples of projects that could succeed or fail based on the battery tech they use.

Newer battery technologies promise huge advantages. Solid-state, thin-film batteries transmit a current across solids, rather than liquid, making them safe and small. These types of batteries can be manufactured in thin and flexible layers, which are useful for small mobile devices. It’s not yet clear whether they can be mass-produced cheaply, say researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Many of the world’s tech companies are already hard at work on battery technology, but improvements have been small compared to semiconductor technology which is getting better much more quickly. It remains to be seen whether the Google X division has what it takes to make leaps and bounds in battery tech that could revolutionise our cars and electronic devices…

SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal

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