4 ms·

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.

k-mcgrady 12y ago
>> "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.
- gaius 12y ago
  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.
- nbm326 12y ago
  I was thinking about this. They don't necessarily have to face the same problems as Uber because they don't have to compete with taxi companies. Uber's model completely relies on direct competition with legacy taxi companies. Google could simply offer their self driving cars to said taxi companies and they'll be able to cut their personnel by 95% over night. You can cut the costs of operating a taxi service while still operating within the confines of the current system. Not sure the taxi companies would get in bed with Google, or cut rates accordingly, I'm just suggesting that driverless cars have certain advantages. That said, theres a whole other can of worms of trying to pass regulation allowing pilotless cars, which I'd guess will be just as difficult as duking it out with TLC's around the country.
- pavedwalden 12y ago
  Hasn't Uber already done a lot of the bush clearing? Sure, there's plenty more to get hashed out, but it might be nice to draft behind Uber, only entering markets once the legal situation stabilizes. I've always been fond of the expression "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese"
gaius 12y ago
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!
- deeviant 12y ago
  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.
1ris 12y ago
OSM is a way better anyway. This would improve uber.
- potatolicious 12y ago
  Not that I don't love OSM - I use it myself for some side projects - but is it really better? Here in NYC I've found several streets mislabeled as one-way in the wrong direction, and not too long ago at that. If these major errors can be found by some guy just fooling around, in one of the biggest cities in the world, how useful is OSM for navigation?
  - Aloisius 12y ago
    Google Maps tried to route me down a staircase in San Francisco for several months, told me I could turn left on a major street that you have never been able to turn left on and decided my address was not only in the wrong part of town, but in a completely different zip code at one point because someone had created a "business" at my address and set it to be in a completely different place which made it pretty much impossible to order from any service dependent on them like grubhub or eat24hours. No one has perfect data. At least when I update OSM, it updates relatively quickly as opposed to Google Maps which took months to get updated after reporting the errors.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Google puts an incredible amount of effort into their GIS/mapping division, and OSM would be hard pressed to compete with those resources.
bsdpython 12y ago
An anti-trust lawsuit would be guaranteed
jbigelow76 12y ago
Bing map data would work just as well. Google might have more coverage out in the sticks but for where Uber operates the coverage density and accuracy difference would be somewhere between negligible to non-existent.
paulhauggis 12y ago
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.
- FeeTinesAMady 12y ago
  It might be more that a lot of people consider Uber to be a despicable company, and Google is the lesser of those evils in this case.
- smtddr 12y ago
  >> 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-fuels-inequality-epidemic-taking-advantage-of-our-safety-net http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/10/1141724/-Walmart-fu... - http://www.alternet.org/story/52526/rural_communities_exploited_by_nestle_for_your_bottled_water http://www.alternet.org/story/52526/rural_communities_exploi... - http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/08/02/3466915/chiquita-colombia-ruling/ http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/08/02/3466915/chiquita-c... - http://philosophia.uncg.edu/phi361-metivier/module-2-why-does-business-need-ethics/case-the-ford-pinto/ http://philosophia.uncg.edu/phi361-metivier/module-2-why-doe... - https://www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights/private-prisons 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.
  - paulhauggis 12y ago
    Google's entire business is based on completely taking every single one of our actions, thoughts, connections, and interests and selling it out to advertisers. Most Android phones push you to put everything into the cloud. Do you know why? Oh yeah, that's right, so they can sell your data to advertisers. Recently, they stopped putting organic search terms in referral traffic from the Google search engine to a website, effectively making it impossible to use any other applications except Google Adsense. Great company, right? They have had a monopoly as bad and far reaching as Microsoft..yet I rarely hear the hatred that I used to hear about Microsoft in the late 90s. It seems like all you need to do is support the developer community by giving out lots of free software/open source and the tech community will forgive you for pretty much anything (employing you at $100,000+/year also helps in this forgiveness).
DigitalSea 12y ago
Considering Google have invested a fair bit of cash into Uber which might be a tax write-off for Google, I would probably say we are going to see Google try and buy Uber out instead. Cutting off their maps access would probably open up a can of worms for Google as Uber would undoubtedly take legal action (and they have the funds to really go for it), there could be a little bit of conflict of interest happening here as Google have access to inner workings of Uber's business model and the business itself. But having said that, there is probably nothing stopping Google from creating a driverless car Uber rival, it would fall outside of the realm of being a true direct competitor as there are no drivers. But are driverless cars at a point where they can be rolled out on a larger scale? Seems there is a lot of regulation and process to abide by before that starts to happen, maybe a controlled rollout? I am surprised Google haven't tried launching their own airline yet, it would probably be undeniably easier than a ridesharing network of driverless cars.
- beamatronic 12y ago
  They are building their own private terminal at San Jose airport [1]. 1. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23041939/san-jose-city-council-approves-deal-airports-elite http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23041939/san-jose-city-council...
  - kunaalarya 12y ago
    for their private jets "Signature's project includes seven hangars for corporate jets, with five of those hangars to be used by Blue City Holdings, its primary tenant. That company will manage aircraft for Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, whose private jets are now parked at Moffett Field, where their lease is up next year."
- mef 12y ago
  Vastly less upside on running your own airline than transforming ground transportation.
terrabakky 12y ago
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.

k-mcgrady 12y ago

>> "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.

gaius 12y ago
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.
nbm326 12y ago
I was thinking about this. They don't necessarily have to face the same problems as Uber because they don't have to compete with taxi companies. Uber's model completely relies on direct competition with legacy taxi companies. Google could simply offer their self driving cars to said taxi companies and they'll be able to cut their personnel by 95% over night. You can cut the costs of operating a taxi service while still operating within the confines of the current system. Not sure the taxi companies would get in bed with Google, or cut rates accordingly, I'm just suggesting that driverless cars have certain advantages. That said, theres a whole other can of worms of trying to pass regulation allowing pilotless cars, which I'd guess will be just as difficult as duking it out with TLC's around the country.
pavedwalden 12y ago
Hasn't Uber already done a lot of the bush clearing? Sure, there's plenty more to get hashed out, but it might be nice to draft behind Uber, only entering markets once the legal situation stabilizes. I've always been fond of the expression "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese"

gaius 12y ago

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!

deeviant 12y ago
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.

1ris 12y ago

OSM is a way better anyway. This would improve uber.

potatolicious 12y ago
Not that I don't love OSM - I use it myself for some side projects - but is it really better? Here in NYC I've found several streets mislabeled as one-way in the wrong direction, and not too long ago at that. If these major errors can be found by some guy just fooling around, in one of the biggest cities in the world, how useful is OSM for navigation?
- Aloisius 12y ago
  Google Maps tried to route me down a staircase in San Francisco for several months, told me I could turn left on a major street that you have never been able to turn left on and decided my address was not only in the wrong part of town, but in a completely different zip code at one point because someone had created a "business" at my address and set it to be in a completely different place which made it pretty much impossible to order from any service dependent on them like grubhub or eat24hours. No one has perfect data. At least when I update OSM, it updates relatively quickly as opposed to Google Maps which took months to get updated after reporting the errors.
toomuchtodo 12y ago
Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Google puts an incredible amount of effort into their GIS/mapping division, and OSM would be hard pressed to compete with those resources.

bsdpython 12y ago

An anti-trust lawsuit would be guaranteed

jbigelow76 12y ago

Bing map data would work just as well. Google might have more coverage out in the sticks but for where Uber operates the coverage density and accuracy difference would be somewhere between negligible to non-existent.

paulhauggis 12y ago

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.

FeeTinesAMady 12y ago
It might be more that a lot of people consider Uber to be a despicable company, and Google is the lesser of those evils in this case.
smtddr 12y ago
>> 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-fuels-inequality-epidemic-taking-advantage-of-our-safety-net http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/10/1141724/-Walmart-fu... - http://www.alternet.org/story/52526/rural_communities_exploited_by_nestle_for_your_bottled_water http://www.alternet.org/story/52526/rural_communities_exploi... - http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/08/02/3466915/chiquita-colombia-ruling/ http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/08/02/3466915/chiquita-c... - http://philosophia.uncg.edu/phi361-metivier/module-2-why-does-business-need-ethics/case-the-ford-pinto/ http://philosophia.uncg.edu/phi361-metivier/module-2-why-doe... - https://www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights/private-prisons 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.
- paulhauggis 12y ago
  Google's entire business is based on completely taking every single one of our actions, thoughts, connections, and interests and selling it out to advertisers. Most Android phones push you to put everything into the cloud. Do you know why? Oh yeah, that's right, so they can sell your data to advertisers. Recently, they stopped putting organic search terms in referral traffic from the Google search engine to a website, effectively making it impossible to use any other applications except Google Adsense. Great company, right? They have had a monopoly as bad and far reaching as Microsoft..yet I rarely hear the hatred that I used to hear about Microsoft in the late 90s. It seems like all you need to do is support the developer community by giving out lots of free software/open source and the tech community will forgive you for pretty much anything (employing you at $100,000+/year also helps in this forgiveness).

DigitalSea 12y ago

Considering Google have invested a fair bit of cash into Uber which might be a tax write-off for Google, I would probably say we are going to see Google try and buy Uber out instead. Cutting off their maps access would probably open up a can of worms for Google as Uber would undoubtedly take legal action (and they have the funds to really go for it), there could be a little bit of conflict of interest happening here as Google have access to inner workings of Uber's business model and the business itself. But having said that, there is probably nothing stopping Google from creating a driverless car Uber rival, it would fall outside of the realm of being a true direct competitor as there are no drivers. But are driverless cars at a point where they can be rolled out on a larger scale? Seems there is a lot of regulation and process to abide by before that starts to happen, maybe a controlled rollout? I am surprised Google haven't tried launching their own airline yet, it would probably be undeniably easier than a ridesharing network of driverless cars.

beamatronic 12y ago
They are building their own private terminal at San Jose airport [1]. 1. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23041939/san-jose-city-council-approves-deal-airports-elite http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23041939/san-jose-city-council...
- kunaalarya 12y ago
  for their private jets "Signature's project includes seven hangars for corporate jets, with five of those hangars to be used by Blue City Holdings, its primary tenant. That company will manage aircraft for Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, whose private jets are now parked at Moffett Field, where their lease is up next year."
mef 12y ago
Vastly less upside on running your own airline than transforming ground transportation.

terrabakky 12y ago

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.