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Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

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Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#51

Post by ajju »

haberman wrote: post #48

> David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer and senior vice president of corporate development, joined the Uber board of directors in 2013, and has served on it ever since. Not super related to this story, but I always have to wonder: why do powerful people join boards? What's in it for them? It seems like an awful lot of work, responsibility, and potential for conflict of interest. What do board members get out o…

in this case, David Drummond was presumably the steward of Google's 250M+ investment. The reason investors join the board is so they can help the company succeed and make sure their interests are being protected

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#52

Post by krschultz »

higherpurpose wrote: post #37
hosay123 wrote: post #18

My inner paranoid finds this interesting from the perspective of Google entering yet another domain where they have high accuracy data on the present/future whereabouts and private concerns of a large number of people.. add it to the hundred other properties they maintain that appear to have no direct business value other than capturing masses of sensitive data that was previously nicely decentralized and private. Ca…

I wonder if eventually NSA will get massive layoffs because much of what they'd do would be redundant, and for 80 percent of the stuff they want they could just ask/hack Google. The other 20 percent employees will remain for users of Google competitors and more targeted spying. So essentially 80 percent of NSA's "intelligence" would be outsourced to Google (for free).

Nope. The fact that they have to be a bit fuzzy with their accounting to cover up the interesting programs means it is near impossible to tell who is sitting idle and useless, and who is super critical but on a project that intentionally is described as idle and useless.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#53

Post by krschultz »

bobbles wrote: post #46
VikingCoder wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"all the same car type" I can't imagine why you think this. I'm picturing that you can order the Google autonomous car that has a 42" TV screen, a hot tub, and a magnum of champagne. Or the stretch limo. Or a flatbed truck. Maybe one without a passenger compartment. Picture "PODS." Portable On-Demand Storage. Except the thing just drives to your house. Picture ordering "Lightning McQueen" for your kid's birthday part…

I'd love a service where I can rent some storage unit out in the middle of the country somewher (I live in Australia..) for cheap cheap prices, then just call a car/van to my house with an app, load it up with gear, and have it delivered out to my storage unit. Seems like a great way to handle people in my situation where I can only afford a small place but don't necessarily want to get rid of all my stuff just becau…

Everything you described, but with people!

https://www.makespace.com/

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#54

Post by wldcordeiro »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #34
Vermeulen wrote: post #5

Google seems unable to have a partner without eventually entering their market and becoming enemies. Apple before Android, Twitter before Google+ - I guess it's inevitable with how many different industries Google tries to tackle. I think if this service is entirely defined by autonomous vehicles it's really a complete different service than Uber. No more driver ratings or passenger ratings, all the same car type, an…

I noted back in 2008 how this was an interesting side effect of Google's empowerment policy. The way it occurred was that anyone of moderate level inside of Google could start a project involving some outside company. This was seductively easy because those companies always wanted the validation that came from working with Google. But the person could be just a run of the mill senior engineer type (of which there wer…

The other option that you didn't mention is that Google sees an opportunity for acquiring the partner.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#55

Post by terrabakky »

geoffwoo wrote: post #2

Google could cut Uber down hard by pulling Google Maps API access. Ballsiest play Google has ever done if they execute on this. Love it.

I can't see it happening. Only recently they got partially integrated with maps.google.com in some cities.

You're right though, it would absolutely destroy the business, requiring them to redevelop their apps. Would be a huge service disruption.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#56

Post by [deleted] »

haberman wrote: post #48

> David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer and senior vice president of corporate development, joined the Uber board of directors in 2013, and has served on it ever since. Not super related to this story, but I always have to wonder: why do powerful people join boards? What's in it for them? It seems like an awful lot of work, responsibility, and potential for conflict of interest. What do board members get out o…

[deleted]

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#57

Post by smtddr »

paulhauggis wrote: post #29
geoffwoo wrote: post #2

Google could cut Uber down hard by pulling Google Maps API access. Ballsiest play Google has ever done if they execute on this. Love it.

so when any other company does something like this, we cry anti-trust. But when Google does it, it's good business? I'm not sure where all of this Google love comes from on HN (besides all of the engineers that work there). Google is just as evil as any large corporation. They may surgar-coat everything with a "do no evil" mantra, but it's just good PR. When you peel back these layers, it's business as usual.

>> Google is just as evil as any large corporation.

Let's not exaggerate. Google might not be perfect; nobody is, but their actions are great magnitudes in distance from the evil some other companies have done. I'd rather work for Google than any of the companies below:

- http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/10/1141724/-Walmart-fu...

- http://www.alternet.org/story/52526/rural_communities_exploi...

- http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/08/02/3466915/chiquita-c...

- http://philosophia.uncg.edu/phi361-metivier/module-2-why-doe...

- https://www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights/private-prisons

- ...just about any oil company.

- ...The diamond industry.

- ...and I'm highly suspicious of what goes on in insurance & credit card companies.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#58

Post by bcantrill »

This is not at all a surprise, and I fully expect Amazon to also ultimately enter this space. (I have no insider knowledge of either company.) It's amazing to me how many people think that Uber is somehow building a deep moat when these other companies (Google, Amazon, etc.) have a much deeper connection with their customers -- to say nothing of the data that have collected. Given perfect rider competition and (especially) perfect driver competition, how does the advantage not lie with the established company and brand? Given Uber's nose-bleed valuation, I suspect that they may become the Webvan-esque poster child of this bubble: visionary, but ultimately a ludicrous valuation and absurd misallocation of capital that was obvious to all only in retrospect.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#59

Post by [deleted] »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #34
Vermeulen wrote: post #5

Google seems unable to have a partner without eventually entering their market and becoming enemies. Apple before Android, Twitter before Google+ - I guess it's inevitable with how many different industries Google tries to tackle. I think if this service is entirely defined by autonomous vehicles it's really a complete different service than Uber. No more driver ratings or passenger ratings, all the same car type, an…

I noted back in 2008 how this was an interesting side effect of Google's empowerment policy. The way it occurred was that anyone of moderate level inside of Google could start a project involving some outside company. This was seductively easy because those companies always wanted the validation that came from working with Google. But the person could be just a run of the mill senior engineer type (of which there wer…

[deleted]

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#60

Post by toomuchtodo »

rottyguy wrote: post #47
toomuchtodo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electric vehicles cost about 1-3 cents/mile for the electricity. They also require so little service, I would assume the cost would be closer to 10-20 cents/mile for a self-driving electric vehicle.

I was baselining from here: http://www.irs.gov/2014-Standard-Mileage-Rates-for-Business,... but, sure, it would most likely be less.

My mistake!
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