Regulators, litigious drivers and hostile members of the media world might be not the biggest threat for Uber, which is now has to deal with its biggest rival - a former ally and biggest investor Google - close to home.
In August 2013 Google Ventures, the tech giant's venture capital arm, invested $258 million in Uber, which appeared to be the largest investment deal ever, and the company put more money into Uber's next funding round less than a year later. Google’s chief legal officer and senior vice president of corporate development David Drummond joined the Uber board of directors in 2013 and has served on it since that time.
However, today there are signs the two companies have ceased to be allies.
Drummond has informed Uber's board that Google is preparing to offer its own ride-hailing service, most likely in conjunction with its long-in-development driverless car project. The company recently said the driverless car technology in development within its Google X research lab is from two to five years from being ready for widespread use.
Google's driverless car prototype
The actions taken by Google have left executives at Uber deeply concerned, says Bloomberg, and for good reason. Google is a wealthy, technically sophisticated competitor. More to that, Uber’s dependence on the tech giant is not limited with capital only. Uber’s smartphone applications for drivers and riders are based on Google Maps. Such alternatives as AOL's MapQuest, Apple Maps, and a host of regional players—are widely seen as inferior.
Uber, by turn, is teaming up with Carnegie Mellon University for a research facility in Pittsburgh, Pa., to develop its own autonomous vehicle technology, the company announced on Monday quoted by Bloomberg.
If Google entered the the ride-sharing market, Uber would either need to develop its own technology or form an alliance with a company that can if it wants to offer autonomous vehicles within its fleet. Car makers Mercedes, Audi, Tesla, and some other have said they are developing driverless cars, however it's not clear that any is as advanced as Google's.
Mercedes Benz's unveiled concept of a driverless car. Source: Daily Mail
There is another sign of rivalry between the firms. Last week Google said
it would start presenting data from third party applications inside
Google Now - a service showing useful information prominently on
the screen of Android smartphones. Google said it had agreed to
draw data from such apps as Pandora, AirBnb, Zillow, and the
ride-sharing service Lyft. Uber is missing in the list.
