Seems like the once allies in business are now huge competitors after Google reportedly is developing a ride-hailing services that would taken aback Uber, the app-based transportation company.
According to the report of Brad Stone from Bloomberg, Google is preparing for its own ride-hailing service in conjunction with their development in a driver-less car. In which Uber is also thinking of offering the same service to commuters.
Google's chief legal officer and senior vice president of corporate development, David Drummond, joined the Uber board of directors in 2013. Drummond has informed Uber about the possibility of Google making its own app-transportation service.
RT also reported about the facts that Google might be pulling out its investments to Uber after investing $258 million on Uber in August 2013. It was revealed that the allocated resources was one of Google Venture's largest investments ever.
Last December of 2014, Google had unveiled their prototype of the self-driving cars, which they manage to develop for five years. Other car companies Audi, Tesla and Mercedes-Benz have also announce to come-up with their own version of un-manned cars. Google is apparently planning to bring the autonomous cars to the market by the year 2020.
Uber executives have also seen some screenshots of Google's app for ride-hailing that was being used by most Google employees.
Uber's CEO, Travis Kalanick also didn't hide his fascination with self-driving cars and had said that it might replace human drivers in the future as per report of Cnet.
A report by Techcrunch said that Uber is now teaming up with Carnegie Mellon University for a research facility in Pittsburgh, Pensylvania. It is said that they aim to develop its own autonomous vehicle technology as what the company had announced last Monday.
Google's entry to the transportation business would leave Uber without a partner with steering wheel-free cars roaming around the globe. But with that happening sometime soon, drivers might want to start updating their resumes because cars might not need their service anymore.
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