Didn't Google announce that they won't be taking any more DARPA contracts in the future? People were reading into that and suggesting that they were moving away from all military hardware all together.
Does that mean Google will not SELL those robots to the army?
DARPA only FUNDED THE R&D for most robots from them. DARPA is a funcding organization for military research projects: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The real customers then will be military, police, homeland security and agencies active in special operations (CIA, ...).
From their homepage:
> Organizations worldwide, from DARPA, the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps to Sony Corporation turn to Boston Dynamics for advice and for help creating the most advanced robots on Earth.
So US Army, Navy and the Marine Corps are already giving money to Google for military robotics projects.
Military use isn't as big a market as you think it is. iRobot is the largest supplier of robots to the US military but military sales only account for 10% of its revenue.
Yeah, that's defense and security. We know that they make money there.
iRobot makes most of their money right now with automated cleaning systems. Just look at their recent financial statement. But that's an offering which Google / Boston Dynamics does not have.
That's what I was told anyways: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8825795
EDIT: Better sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-and-darpa-robotics-cha...
http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/zero-moment/google-rumore...