It's not certain what Google will do in the wake of this shift. The search giant is kind to Dugan, thanking her for "all her leadership," but it's hard to deny that this is a big blow to the ATAP team. For many, she was the core of the division -- its projects revolved around Dugan's long-serving strategies of both relying on scientific breakthroughs and pushing for tangible progress within a few years. Google may carry on with that strategy despite Dugan's absence, but it could have a tough time finding someone to fill her shoes.

I'm excited to announce that we've started a new group at Facebook called Building 8 focused on building new hardware... Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, April 13, 2016