hahahahaha. Good luck google.
Anyone game to take longbets on Google building a successful product internally and scaling it with their traditional approach?
I'm always doubtful.
Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
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Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#12Google could cut Uber down hard by pulling Google Maps API access. Ballsiest play Google has ever done if they execute on this. Love it.
Killer quote:
which gives Google a fire hose of data about transportation patterns within cities
It seems that their investment in Uber was about getting someone to gather the data for them, perhaps it was cheaper than doing it themselves!
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#13this is the least surprising news of the decade.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#14If Google competes directly with a company they are invested in via GV they're going to really damage the reputation of GV. Why would you accept investment from them if they're going to get access to your private info and then turn around and screw you.
I don't have insider knowledge, but I believe Google claims that there's a wall between Google and GV, and they act completely independently. This makes sense to me -- otherwise, no one would pitch ideas to GV that Google might one day implement (i.e. basically all ideas that have a software angle).
To me, if Google uses insider knowledge to copy Uber, then that would be huge mistake and credibility killer; if they want to build up their own competitor from scratch without any insider knowledge, then that's their business.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#15Google could cut Uber down hard by pulling Google Maps API access. Ballsiest play Google has ever done if they execute on this. Love it.
OSM is a way better anyway. This would improve uber.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#16Google could cut Uber down hard by pulling Google Maps API access. Ballsiest play Google has ever done if they execute on this. Love it.
An anti-trust lawsuit would be guaranteed
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#17Google 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…
"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 party. He shows up, and someone is doing the "Talk With Crush" thing, remotely animating Lightning's eyes, etc.
Picture ordering "Herbie The Love Bug" to drive your kid and his date to prom.
Or ordering the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Or the A-Team van. Or KITT.
Or a motor-home / RV.
Or a giant truck filled with Arcade Machines. Again, for corporate parties.
Or a portable kitchen. Stocked with ingredients you pick. Great for outdoor parties at parks, tail-gating, etc.
Or a micro-brew / mini-bar. Whatever bottles you open, you pay for. Stocked blender, ice, brews on tap, etc.
Cripes, if you want to test-drive a car, having one that can autonomously show up at your work, or home... Not that you'd necessarily buy an autonomous one, but the idea of bringing the dealership to you?
Or ordering a snow-plow. No driver. You click a button, pay $10, and your driveway gets plowed.
Or getting a Student Driver car. It sits there watching your kid learn to drive, and saves their ass if they do anything dumb. Gives them a report card. Lets you know how they're doing.
Or ordering a Sleeper car. Shows up at my house at 9 pm, and drives me to Chicago by 8 am. I'd order one every weekend.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#18My 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.
Can't book a flight (ITA), order a taxi (this), book a hotel or chat with a friend (Gmail), or pay for dinner (Wallet) without generating an activity log with a single company.
Even if (and perhaps even probably) Google weren't doing this intentionally, they've already demonstrated through failing to encrypt their inter-DC connections how they're becoming a massive single point of failure (remember Snowden showed us the NSA were tapping Google's internal network already). Whether the end result is an intelligence service tap, or some legislative measure affecting the company done in the open, I'll simply never be comfortable with one company concentrating so much personal data affecting so many people.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#19Google could cut Uber down hard by pulling Google Maps API access. Ballsiest play Google has ever done if they execute on this. Love it.
>> "Google could cut Uber down hard by pulling Google Maps API access." Why would they do that to a company they are invested in? >> "if they execute on this." There's the key. They are going to face the same regulatory problems as Uber. Worse if they go the self-driving car route as that going to require huge overalls to legislation worldwide.
I think we should differentiate between a self-driving car (with a full set of controls) and a driverless car. The former is 100x more likely to happen than the latter. You might see driverless buses that go on predefined routes.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#20Google could cut Uber down hard by pulling Google Maps API access. Ballsiest play Google has ever done if they execute on this. Love it.
Killer quote: which gives Google a fire hose of data about transportation patterns within cities It seems that their investment in Uber was about getting someone to gather the data for them, perhaps it was cheaper than doing it themselves!
I don't think the quote was saying that Uber is providing said fire hose of data, but rather that Google Maps gives Google a fire hose of traffic data which in turn Uber utilizes to create efficient routing.