‘Development of Google’s AR headsets and software has many internal problems’

Google faces many problems internally when developing its own augmented reality headset. The development of a headset under the name Project Moohan is not going as well as expected, partly because maker Samsung sets strict requirements for the work.

Business Insider writes about the vicissitudes following conversations with various anonymous employees within Google. The problems lie in the development of Project Moohan. This is a partnership between Google and Samsung that was started after Google stopped its own Project Iris. Business Insider already reported on this in June.

Even before the termination of Project Iris, Google would focus with Samsung on another mixed reality headset, which is mainly developed by Samsung. Google was supposed to make the software for this, but that caused problems for Google. During development, Samsung demanded that Google employees not work on the hardware of that headset. The company is said to be afraid that Google would create a competing product.

Samsung is also said to be delaying the project due to the upcoming release of Apple’s Vision Pro headset. Samsung is said to be afraid that the Moohan headset cannot meet the standard of what Apple wants to bring to the market. Samsung is now said to be aiming for a 2024 release, but several Google employees are skeptical that that will be achieved.

Partly because of this, Google had to stop several other projects such as Iris. Google is now said to be working on new teams that will also create their own software that manufacturers can use when they make glasses themselves. This is only possible for monocular glasses, or mixed reality headsets that have an extra layer over the normal lens.