Google is dead.

No, I think they made the right choice to sell out Boston Dynamics. BD makes robots for the military that can walk and can slowly do slightly more human things like interacting with objects. They're all-purpose robots, similar to the robots we all know from fiction.

Which makes sense when you are developing for the military, who hopes to reduce the workload of tons of people in tons of circumstances. They need robots that can walk on any terrain. However, the steps that need to be taken from the current robots to fully capable humanoid robots is enormous. We need leaps in both hardware (what BD does well) and software (what Google does well) to get there.

It won't translate well into a product in the next decade or two. Between then and now, I think robotics is much better suited for single-purpose robots that are more advanced, something like this or simple walking robots that can do very simple tasks.

My best guess is that selling Boston Dynamic is either

- Google figuring out that they don't really have a lot to contribute on the hardware side, or

- Google realizing that humanoid all-purpose robots are too far away from reality to be building them.

Also, if you think Google discontinues robotics projects because they might be a PR disaster, you haven't followed the discussions around their self-driving car enough.