Google LLC parent Alphabet Inc. is shutting down its moonshot technology agricultural artificial intelligence robot startup Mineral today and licensing some of its assets to berry producer Driscoll’s Inc.

Mineral launched as a division of Alphabet’s moonshot technology lab, X, in 2020 with the vision that it would use AI and robotic “buggies” to analyze crops for greater yield and sustainability. However, according to a report from Bloomberg, after the company graduated from the lab last year and became an independent subsidiary of Alphabet, it failed to find footing among the competition.

Mineral proposes to use sustainable hardware, such as solar panels, to power a roving robot that uses cameras and machine learning algorithms to patrol a crop field and autonomously scan plants. The sensors, in conjunction with external data, such as satellite, weather and soil data, the buggy’s AI can identify plant patterns and potential issues with crops to better inform farmers about their harvests.

This would provide a comprehensive source of information for farmers with environmental friendliness at the core to allow them a holistic understanding of their fields and their crops. That way, they could manage their use of fertilizer, chemicals and water more productively. By using robots in the field alongside other data, they wouldn’t have to carry sensors out themselves and would have access to sustainable technology on hand.

Upon its first rollout, the robotic buggies were used to study soybeans in Illinois and strawberries in California. The same technology was adapted to scan crop fields of berries, lettuce, oilseeds, oats, barley and melons.

Bloomberg’s report noted that in the past few months it became clear to sources within Google that Mineral would not have a future there.

“We are transferring our technology out to the agriculture ecosystem to maximize the impact of bringing our AI to agriculture,” Mineral wrote in a copy of a memo obtained by Bloomberg. “Mineral will no longer be an Alphabet company, and our technology will live on inside of leading agribusinesses where they can have maximum impact.”

As for its future, the company had partnered extensively with Driscoll’s, which had used the technology to predict how many berries its crops would yield, making the company a likely candidate for licensing the technology. An unnamed source within Google also said more deals are in the works with other companies Mineral has partnered with.

“We were really disappointed that Alphabet decided to change directions,” Scott Komar, Driscoll’s senior vice president of global research and development, told Bloomberg. “We have really had a great partnership with the Mineral team and from our vantage point, they were just getting takeoff altitude. And then all of a sudden, you know, plans changed.”

Although Kormar did not share the terms of the deal, he said he believed the license would provide Driscoll’s a right to use the technology in perpetuity.

Photo: Mineral