In a talk at SXSW today, the head of Google’s X Lab ‘moonshot’ division, Astro Teller, revealed a previously undisclosed project the clandestine group had worked on. He also hinted at a new project to be announced in a few weeks. Don’t go expecting a Space Elevator though, that’s a myth. In addition to the previously known self-driving cars, Project Glass and neural network project, Teller said that making the blue dot in Google Maps accurate for users’ locations inside buildings as well as outside began as a project inside X Lab. Teller said that the team working on the project thought that they would need to put new satellites into orbit or install beacons all over the world in order to do this. Instead, they found a way that didn’t require dedicated hardware. The project  was then ‘graduated’ from X Lab to the Geo division, where the team involved is now working on getting location accuracy down to 25 centimeters. X Labs projects are graduated out of X Lab because the division’s “Peter Pans with PHDs” need to keep focusing on moonshots, rather than commercial projects. While Teller wouldn’t detail exactly what the next X Labs project to be announced will be, he said it related to control systems. He added that when Larry Page approved the project, he told Teller to make sure that he broke at least five prototype devices. Teller said that this was a reminder he needed that if you’re not
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