Over the past year, there has been in immense rise in two fields of auto technologies: taxi and ride-sharing apps and the research and development of self-driving cars. The two head honchos of these two fields are, of course, Uber and Google – and now it seems as though these two tech giants may go head-to-head with competing apps on both ends of the sphere.
While Google has made the most headlines with their autonomous vehicle initiative, Uber has just announced that they are moving into that very same field.
The company announced yesterday that they are partnering with Carnegie Mellon University to create a “˜Uber advanced Technologies Centre‘ in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This centre will be aimed at researching (and possibly developing) autonomous vehicles as well as other vehicle safety technologies.
“The partnership will provide a forum for Uber technology leaders to work closely with [Carnegie Mellon University] faculty, staff, and students “” both on campus and at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) “” to do research and development, primarily in the areas of mapping and vehicle safety and autonomy technology,” they said in a blog post on their website.
There is also a formal event for the research centre scheduled to take place within the next few weeks.
It‘s not the first time that Uber has been tied to the development of self-driving cars. Last year, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, mentioned Uber‘s plans to jump aboard the self-driving car train and said that autonomous cars were in “˜inevitability‘ for their business.
He continued saying that self-driving cars will make the cost of Uber cheaper, as it will eliminate the driver. And while Kalanick sure got a lot of backlash for said statement, he assured the press that this will only (maybe) become a reality within the next decade.
While Uber may plan on having autonomous taxi‘s, Google has by far been the front runner in the self-driving car race. Last year, the company demoed a self-driving car already – albeit small and tiny and perhaps not as safe.
The reality is, however, that even though companies are talking about self-driving cars and what it would mean to the world, there are still a lot of bumps in the road to having autonomous vehicles on public roads. Regulations, radar system research and improvements in computer vision technologies all still need to be addressed before you can catch a self-driving taxi anywhere.
What makes Uber‘s announcement interesting, however, is the fact that it comes at exactly the same time as Google‘s reported plans of starting their own ride-sharing app, which could be a rival to Uber.
While ride-sharing isn‘t Uber‘s thing, per se, it does fall in their line of competition.
According to Bloomberg, David Drummond – who is the Chief Legal Officer at Google and also sits on Uber‘s board – informed Uber of Google‘s ride-sharing app plans. In fact, he apparently showed them screenshots of the app in action and said that the app was already in use by Google employees, sharing rides to work.
So naturally, this means that the app is not only in a “˜planning‘ phase, but in fact, is being used or tested already, albeit in house.
Whether Google plans on releasing their app to the public is another question, but the Wall Street Journal doesn‘t seem to think so.
They reported that a Google engineer is only testing the app internally and that it was designed only to help Google employees share rides to work and that they do not want to take Uber on in a head-on competition.
This could make sense, considering the fact that Google is one of Uber‘s biggest investors. In August 2013, Google Ventures invested $250 million into Uber. Furthermore, they also integrated Uber into Google Maps. So it is safe to say that Google is somewhat of a cheerleader for Uber.
On the other side, Google also seems to be a cheerleader for Lyft – Uber‘s rival. Google included Lyft as one of the third-party apps to integrate with Google Now.
However, the media seems to think that there is definitely a rift in the Uber, Google partnership.
Bloomberg was the first to report on Google‘s ride-sharing app and Uber‘s venture into self-driving cars, and they definitely didn‘t hold back with the sensation.
The headline of their article read: “œGoogle and Uber going to war over taxi‘s“ and the article included the line: “œ…[sic] Now there are signs that the companies are more likely to be ferocious competitors than allies.“
They site a “˜person close to the Uber board‘ said that Uber is considering asking David Drummond to resign, after he informed them of Google‘s ride-sharing app.
However, Google seemed to nip any speculation of a “˜war‘ in the bud, by a simple tweet.
The tweet, directed at Bloomberg (@business) read: “œWe think you‘ll find Uber and Lyft work quite well. We use them all the time“
So, by all accounts, it looks like there is no war on the horizon – at least form Google‘s point of view. But, as we‘ve seen in the past, sometimes things can be (a lot) of smoke and mirrors.
We will have to wait and see whether Google will take on Uber and whther Uber will develop self-driving cars, first. the race is on, I suppose.
