Towards the end of last year, Cyanogen surprised us when it announced that it is giving up on building a better version of Android. This was accompanied with the unfortunate news of Cyanogen shuttering office, losing a co-founder and workforce layoffs. All this chaos was caused because of misguided ambitions and internal strife between top executives.
But Cyanogen Inc. CEO Kirt Mcmaster seems to be brewing something new and one can expect the company to make a return with a new avatar. It will most likely be called ‘Andrasta’ and Android Police has dug up some evidence to corroborate the same. The doubt has been confirmed in an unusual manner, all thanks to a now-deleted tweet from Mcmaster himself.
The tweet sent out by the chief executive included two photos — one of a wrecked Tesla and other of the wall it collided with. This evidently showed off the doors to the previous Cyanogen HQ (located at 301, High Street, Palo Alto) but did you notice something different? Closely examine the first image and look for a new ‘V-shaped’ logo on the door of the space numbered 301.
Were you amazed to notice the change in the branding? For those who didn’t spot the difference, Cyanogen’s Palo Alto office is now the new headquarters for Andrasta. The doors now feature the new logo and branding for Andrasta. Even the standees inside the office advertise the same. Also, though Cyanogen has officially shuttered this office but the lease doesn’t end until 2018. Thus, the team is making the most of an unfortunate situation.
The doubts of Cyanogen pivoting to something new have further been confirmed due to some serious NCIS-type investigation. This involves the photograph of the damaged Tesla electric vehicle, which has been posted on Twitter. Though we currently have no information on who owns the Tesla but the same car has previously been spotted in the parking lot of Cyanogen as early as October 2016. This was confirmed via a Google Street View image, and it most likely belongs to an ex-Cyanogen and current-Andrasta employee.
Other interesting ‘Andrasta’ updates
We might have stumbled upon some evidence related to Cyanogen’s current efforts focused on pivoting and reviving its business but we’re completely aloof of what it is building. But it is certainly intriguing! It definitely paints a picture clearer than before and has further piqued our interest in the company.
If you head over to Andrasta’s official website, it just displays the new branding and a man looking in the distance. But if you scroll down a little, you’ll notice that the said project is being built by people from — Google (surely because of its Android roots), Apple, Microsoft (might be due to the Cortana deal), Uber and others. The most intriguing one of these will, however, have to be Tesla. Yes, employees from the said automaker are also working on this new project.
Andrasta’s profile on LinkedIn describes the company as under:
At Andrasta we’re designing a future that is quite extraordinary, something that will change the way we live our lives and challenge the very essence of the daily journey. We believe that technology should work for you and not the other way around. It should be powerful, predictive and most of all…about you.
Further, it also seems the new Andrasta team has a new focus and is working on something completely different from Android. The careers page on the official website (as well as LinkedIn) lists that the company is looking to hire a handful of employees to fill 15 different positions. These include — Machine Learning and AI Professionals, Big Data Engineers, Front-end Developers, Product Managers, Embedded RTOS Engineer, and DevOps Engineer, among others.
This, as far as we can fathom, points towards the inception of a self-driving software firm. It also justifies the involvement of engineers from Uber, Tesla, and other technology giants. But we cannot be too sure, so take this prediction with a grain of salt.
The unexpected unveiling of the Andrasta branding at Cyanogen’s Palo Alto offices have only pushed us to investigate more. The company isn’t currently teasing its plans for the new project but we should expect to hear about this very soon. We’ve reached out to Cyanogen CEO Kirt Mcmaster for more information and will update you once we hear back.
