As Australian States Governments battle it out with Taxi Companies over the growth of demand for Uber, Google has quietly moved to develop a competitor with insiders tipping that the new service could be launched in Australia this year.
Back in 2013 Google Ventures invested $258 million in Uber, at the time it was the largest Google Ventures investment deal they had ever made.
Now insiders are tipping that the two could become competitors rather than than allies with Google software developers set to launch their own version of the Uber ride application.
ChannelNews understands that the Uber board were recently told of the development. We have also been told that Australia could be one of the markets where the new Google Uber competitor could be tested.
Screenshots of what appears to be a Google ride-sharing app are currently circulating inside Google offices.
Google has made no secret of its ambitions to revolutionise transportation with the introduction of driverless vehicles.
Bloomberg said the move has left executives at Uber deeply concerned-for good reason. Google is a deep-pocketed, technically sophisticated competitor, and Uber’s dependence on the search giant goes far beyond capital. Uber’s smartphone applications for drivers and riders are based on Google Maps, which gives Google a fire hose of data about transportation patterns within cities. Uber would be crippled if it lost access to the industry-leading mapping application, and alternatives- such as AOL’s MapQuest or Apple Maps.
TGoogle’s entrance into the ride-sharing market would also leave Uber without a partner in the suddenly plausible future in which cars without steering wheels roam the streets. Uber will either have to develop the technology itself or form an alliance with a company that can if it wants to offer autonomous vehicles within its fleet. Mercedes, Audi, Tesla, and other carmakers have said they are developing driverless cars, though it’s not clear that any is as advanced as Google’s.
An Uber spokesperson has declined to offer any comment.
