Well, I learned something new from Sergey Brin’s appearance with Google+ guru Vic Gundotra at yesterday’s Web 2.0 Summit.
Did you know that Brin is leading Google’s driverless car effort to enable cars to tool around autonomously powered by an on-board computer and cameras? There is a token human behind the wheel just in case.
He noted that while it will take a lot more development to get them to market, there are a lot of people who can’t get around who will benefit from them. He mentions those who are too old, too young or disabled (I would include too drunk to drive in that).
Still, this is heady stuff, the stuff of science fiction movies. So what else is Brin up to? He wouldn’t say exactly.
He did say he is happy with his work, which is of a technical nature he hasn’t been able to enjoy for the last several years until his colleague Larry Page took the helm as CEO in April.
Brin said he is working on exciting projects he “mostly won’t talk about today.” These are advanced research projects and infrastructure projects that are technical.
One of these might make its way into a Google product later this year, he told reporters after his appearance.
I’d like to hazard a guess or two. Perhaps Brin is working on the Google Fiber project, though not just to bring ultra high-speed broadband to select cities in Kansas. Maybe he’s working to bring Google Fiber across the country.
One other guess would be something in biomedical. Perhaps he is working on big data computing problems for cancer research, or something in genetics, which has been an area of concern for him since he learned he is susceptible to Parkinson’s disease.
Anyone else want to guess what Brin is up to?