Google’s augmented reality boss leaves with harsh criticism: “His commitment is unstable”

Those of us who have used Google products and services for years know that the big weakness is their commitment to making them work. Managers don’t flinch when it comes to completing projects no matter how successful, from Google Reader to Stadia to Pixelbooks.

If for consumers it is frustrating, for employees it is even more so; and now we may have seen the results of that frustration, with the march of a very important name In the future plans of Google, th at of Mark Lucovsky.

Lucovsky was the head of operating systems and software platform at Google’s augmented and mixed reality division, called Google XR; he was therefore in charge of the new “Android for Augmented Reality” which was intended to be the benchmark for future glasses. That, if not cancelled, of course.

Controversy on Google

This march does not seem to have gone in a friendly way, given the comments that Lucovsky himself published in his official Twitter account. In the statement, accuses Google of ‘weak vision and commitment’, who had a great influence on his decision to leave the company; he also says he is leaving to explore opportunities that will advance augmented reality technology and its intersection with generative artificial intelligence. Reading between the lines, it’s clear that he feels this was not possible within Google.

Although Google is considered one of the best companies to work for, for engineers as advanced in their field as Lucovsky, it may not be the best for their professional career. especially if they constantly have to change direction. Remember that initially Google was the company that bet the most on augmented reality

, going so far as to launch a dedicated device, Google Glass, and implement this technology on Android. Ironically, just when executives decided to scale back their commitment to augmented reality, all sorts of alternatives appeared, and arch-rival Apple surprised with the Vision Pro, the most striking augmented reality glasses in this day. Meta has also joined, as part of its commitment to the Metaverse, and the new Quest 3 glasses have the most advanced mixed reality capabilities in the lineup.

Ironically, Lucovsky was previously part of Oculus (creators of Quest and now part of Meta); so he probably expected something different when he joined Google in 2021 to lead changes to Google’s augmented reality operating system. But since then, Google has gone through several rounds of layoffs, its head of virtual reality quit, it canceled plans to launch new glasses, and it canceled production of the enterprise version of Google Glass. It is understandable that with so many hits in a row, Lucovsky feels that Google is no longer interested in augmented reality.

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