This did not happen.
Public perception of the barges wasn’t great. Shockingly, when you build massive structures on water vessels and don’t tell people what they are, they aren’t super thrilled. What truly did Google in, though, was continuous clashes with the Coast Guard.
Google built the barges to be traveling showrooms, but they also probably liked the idea of getting past certain regulations by having water-based structures. This, however, put their project under the watchful eyes of the Coast Guard, and this would ultimately be the downfall of the Google barges.
Because each barge contained 5,000 gallons of fuel, the Coast Guard concluded that they were fire hazards. This was a major safety concern, but the Coast Guard had 20 pages of other issues that would need to be addressed for the barges to actually see use. With their plan of seemingly acting first and asking for permission later having backfired, Google would’ve had to do a lot to make their showroom barges work. Rather than jump through the hoops, Google abandoned the project, and both barges were sold off in 2014.
And considering the failure that became of Google Glass, it seems unlikely that trying it out on a barge would’ve made any amount of difference.
Top Image: cloud2013/Flickr
Related: 7 Times Google Maps Straight Up Ruined People’s Lives
Get More of This!
Sign up for the One Cracked Fact newsletter to get even more craziness from our weird world sent to your inbox every day!
Recommended For Your Pleasure
That Time Google Made Creepy Sailing Showrooms
Source: Pinoy Daily News
![Disclaimer](<a href="https://rebrand.ly/LazadaSalePh"><img src="http://getfreefollowers.net/images/lazhorizontal.jpeg" /></a>){kind=link}
0 Comments