Top Secret Google X Lab Is Inventing the Future

Google X is the place where dreams come true… Well, maybe not dreams, but internet connected refrigerators. Google has a secret lab somewhere in the Bay Area where they are experimenting with strange new concepts, experimental technology, and futuristic products.

Do you remember Google’s self-driving cars? After they were revealed in 2009 many people began to speculate that Google had a secret lab somewhere to develop futuristic technology. A piece in the New York Times today confirms the existence of Google X. And even more intriguing, the NY Times piece gives a glimpse at some of the products we could see from Google in the future.

According to the NY Times, Google has about “100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas.” Most of those ideas are still in the concept phase, but Google has started working on a few. Here are some of the products that Google is working on.

• A refrigerator that is connected to the internet so that it can automatically order groceries when supplies run low.
• An elevator that can bring you into outer space.
• A robot that can go to work for you.
• A way of connecting items like your coffee maker, light bulbs, or garden planter, to the internet.

A Google spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, didn’t comment on the lab specifically, but did say that Google often invests in speculative projects. Haselbaker said:

“While the possibilities are incredibly exciting, please do keep in mind that the sums involved are very small by comparison to the investments we make in our core businesses.”

Investors might like the idea of Google using money to build internet connected toasters, but Larry Page assured investors earlier this year that Google X ate up a very small percentage of Google’s money.

“There are a few small, speculative projects happening at any one time, but we are very careful stewards of shareholders’ money. We are not betting the farm on these.”

Google is worth billions of dollars. Hopefully a small percentage of that is enough to build an elevator to the moon.