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Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

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Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assumed the parent comment meant user-provided data, not raw GPS data, since presumably the driver app is always reporting their location (how else would they know which drivers to dispatch?)

I'm not sure what user-provided data would even be beneficial? Stuff that's likely already collected encompasses where the user is picked up, dropped off, route taken, time of departure and arrival .etc

Reasons for why drivers always take route X between streets A and B, for example (e.g. street C has been changed to one way only so route Y isn't actually legal/possible).

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the NSA relinquish power? Layoffs imply a lack of income, a problem the NSA, as a government program, doesn't have to worry about. If those 80% were redundant, why not repurpose them to dig a little deeper into other activities?

How does NSA or other government programs not have to worry about lack of income? 1) Government programs have been temporarily and/or permanently shutdown by minority parties in the past. 2) US Government exists at the leisure of the people within its borders.

If the agency in question can sufficiently co-opt/coerce the government, they don't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#133
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the US, the current TIGER data is pretty reasonable. They could get away with using that (especially as a starting point), or OpenStreeetMap. Waze demonstrated how well a crowd sourcing effort can work. It's also apparently possible for a small team to start doing sign recognition: http://blog.mapillary.com/update/2015/01/27/traffic-signs.ht...

The TIGER data is a starting point . But it's outdated the day it is complete, and rapidly diverges. For many purposes that's perfectly fine, but as stated above, you need someone driving the street. Even something as major as postcodes changes multiple times in between TIGER updates, and tons of streets are changed or added or removed. The TIGER dataset is fantastic, and certainly helps levelling the playing field b…

Have you looked at the last couple years of updates? It's way more accurate and complete than it used to be, and for getting names on that last 1%, they have drivers and the ability for the app to say "I don't know that street name, is it new?".

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#134

I'm glad that the article highlighted how valuable the mapping information is that Google collects. While Uber probably could still run its current operations without Google map data, there is a much smaller probability that they would be able to run a self-driving car service without a highly accurate mapping product. And to build a mapping product is really difficult and expensive. I was surprised when Google start…

Uber is already pretty much limited to major metropolitan areas, so maybe Uber would really only need map data in these consolidated areas. At least to start.

That's a major benefit to rolling this out as a cab company rather than as a car manufacturer - you can enforce limits like that and people won't complain because they won't even know about the 98% of roads you haven't automated yet. Assuming you can get regulators to accept it:

Map area by area - send out human driven cars if a customer requests a journey you can't cover with driverless cars yet..

Assuming they collect GPS traces, they know exactly what areas will cover the most of their business with the least amount of mapping.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#135

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 (espec…

Forget Google, Lyft and Sidecar are basically already the same thing as Uber. Plus local cab companies are developing their own apps. The barrier to entry in ride-dispatching is absurdly low. I wish somebody (city government? craigslist?) would just make a free clearing-house for it.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does NSA or other government programs not have to worry about lack of income? 1) Government programs have been temporarily and/or permanently shutdown by minority parties in the past. 2) US Government exists at the leisure of the people within its borders.

If the agency in question can sufficiently co-opt/coerce the government, they don't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover

Certainly. It is up to the people that allow the government to persist to surveil the activities of that government to ensure that it is operating within the bounds they have permitted.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#137
post #7

Google is the only company with a potential edge over Uber right now. The point in time at which self-driving cars are usable by the the public is the only visible inflection point where Uber's hegemony is truly threatened. (edit) The article suggest self driving cars, and by extension Google's ridesharing service won't be ready for 2-5 more years.

Huh? No. Anyone with relatively deep pockets could easily disrupt Uber right now. Uber's technology is pretty simple and straightforward, and not meaningfully patent-protected. You can do the same tech given six months or so and a decent engineering team.

And Uber's customer-base is price sensitive. You can easily get into this market if you're willing to price compete with Uber.

Now, Uber is very willing to price-compete ferociously. It will absolutely drive you both deep into unprofitability. And Uber has quite a war-chest, and it can push around its smaller competitors this way. But as rich as Uber is, there are plenty of companies that are richer. Way richer. Orders of magnitude richer.

I think that so far, the really big boys have said, "Why do we want to get into a price war with Uber? They'll fight until the last breath, I don't see why we should launch a deeply unprofitable ride-sharing service."

Amazon might do it eventually. They have expertise in operating at high scale, low-margin, and they're big enough to destroy Uber. They also might want to use a ride-sharing service to deliver goods. I think that right now, they've mostly said, "We're unconvinced that there's a real logistics business here, and so we aren't going to get involved."

Google might do it for the data.

I can't see Apple bothering -- it's pretty far outside of their corporate comfort zone. But if, I don't know, Tim Cook gets hit by a bus and their new CEO wants to make major changes, they absolutely COULD do it.

Microsoft could maybe do it in an attempt to create a compelling entry-point to their ecosystem, but it's not very Microsofty.

I don't see that any non-computer companies currently have a reason to try it.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#138

I'm glad that the article highlighted how valuable the mapping information is that Google collects. While Uber probably could still run its current operations without Google map data, there is a much smaller probability that they would be able to run a self-driving car service without a highly accurate mapping product. And to build a mapping product is really difficult and expensive. I was surprised when Google start…

> So, Uber really needs to start thinking about the mapping aspect. Perhaps they can incent their current drivers to start reporting back all the street info as they pick up their passengers. Of course, this would bring up problems if the drivers eventually realize that this data could be used to replace them. It would be interesting to see uber cars with Google StreetView style cameras on their hoods.

Most likely they would either start having drivers drive Uber cars with steetview-esq data collection gear on it, or pay a premium to drivers who mounted a tray on the roof of their vehicle that contained high resolution cameras, a laser scanner, and a controller to process and forward that data back.

I would not be surprised if Uber was looking at acquiring https://www.mapillary.com for this functionality.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#139
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.

So "we" cry antitrust whenever a company decides to enter a market? That seems odd.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#140
I misread the headline; I actually think that all big companies should attempt to set up their own competitor (with a very small flat team, but resources, users, internal datasets etc.). It would be a big investment but would cement monopoly positions and make it even harder for competitors to gain any sort of traction.

A new search engine from Google written with different goals and views of how things should be done would be very interesting and probably gain a good portion of Bing and Yahoo! Users in the process. This applies to a lot of businesses of course.

An Uber from Google could also be great too but their once clear idea of what they are is getting fragmented and that'll show in the implementation and UX of Google Cabs.

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