
Google Maps On Mobile Gets Uber Integration - viscanti
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/06/google-maps-on-mobile-gets-uber-integration-and-more/
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Dorian-Marie
Knowing Google, it will be an Android API service where you can register your
app, so here Uber is an example in the screenshot but other apps will be able
to register too.

That would actually be amazing the see the different prices / times for each
service like Uber / Lyft / Taxi / Bus / Metro / etc.

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msoad
I think this happened because Google Ventures invested $200M on Uber last
year.

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salimmadjd
This is either a huge victory for Uber or a trojan horse by Google.

Google can use this strategy to train users to rely on google maps for Uber.
If they see traction, they can roll out their own competing ride sharing
service on top of google maps where they already have built traction and have
users by using Uber.

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awwstn
Google invested $258,000,000 in Uber [1]. Why would they have plans to roll
out a competing ride sharing service?

[1] [http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/google-ventures-
puts-258m-i...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/google-ventures-
puts-258m-into-uber-its-largest-deal-ever/)

~~~
lost_name
Although I don't think they'd want to compete directly with Uber... surely
they'll want to do something with their self driving car technology some time
in the future.

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Dorian-Marie
Having self-driving Uber cars would be pretty amazing and cheaper.

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JunkDNA
What makes you think they would be cheaper?

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jey
Costs would at least be lower, which at least opens the possibility of it
becoming cheaper. Sure, it's possible to conceive of a dystopic scenario where
GooUber has such a monopoly that they can just keep prices arbitrarily high
and disconnected from costs, but I think that's pretty unlikely.

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scep12
It seems hard to say for sure that costs will be lower. The cost of a fully-
autonomous/self-driving car is still unknown. Even if google is currently at
the 90%, it's well-known that the last 10% is always the hardest. That last
bit is especially important when you consider the consequences of imperfection
in this venue.

~~~
carlosrt
He might be implying that the cost to rent a car, for 30 minutes, twice a day,
would be cheaper than owning an, idle, car 24 hours a day.

Or, sharing the ride with three other commuters could bring the total cost of
ownership to ~15 minutes per day.

~~~
jey
I meant that the incremental cost of paying a human driver would be gone. The
fixed cost of inventing and developing the self-driving technology would be
minimal because it is amortized across all self-driving cars.

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hershel
Currently the biggest challenge of UBER is regulatory - cities are fighting it
tooth and nail. One way to exert strong political pressure is to offer a real
breakthrough new service for the mass population(and not something like UBER
which is an incremental innovation targeted for a small section of the
population). This also fits with the breakthrough mentality shown by google's
leaders.

Such service could work like UBER for public transit[1], basically enabling
people to share rides with multiple other people while decreasing the costs
significantly and maybe making such a service an viable alternative to private
transportation. Such an offer would be hard for politicians to resist for
long.

One key to enable such service at scale, is access to plenty of people and
their real-time travel data, and having an ability to offer them an highly
targeted ad + route + service. That sound perfect for google+UBER. Like a huge
market they're positioned perfectly for.

[1]Previous HN thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7391885](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7391885)

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kevando
I've got to think this is a big play for their self driving cars.

1) The new map data moves to show how super advanced their capabilities
measuring real time data so people build more trust.

2) Uber is also a likely bridge to the mass population accepting self driving
cars. First we ditch our own cars for ubers (which are everywhere according to
google maps), then when Google decides to swap out the human with AI, it won't
be as a drastic jump from where we are now.

Kudos, Google.

~~~
hershel
Totally agree.

More so: let's think about speed of adoption. It takes much less time to
replace a small fleet of public transportation vehicles than the huge private
fleet we have today.

And from a business model perspective , if an automated car manufacturer wants
to compete , he has to start building a public transportation service now. But
cars manufacturers have wrong incentives and bad capabilities for such tasks.

So this practically guarantees Google will win a large share of the automated
transportation market from the car companies.

Maybe it's time to invest in google ?

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NicoJuicy
I wonder how it works in Brussels and in Germany, where UberPop has been
forbidden.

And does it integrate Uber only (where only legit taxidrivers can participate)
or does it also integrate UberPop (that has been illegal in Brussels and
Germany). Cause according the website, UberPop is still available in Germany
([https://www.uber.com/cities/berlin](https://www.uber.com/cities/berlin) )
and in Brussels
([https://www.uber.com/cities/brussels](https://www.uber.com/cities/brussels))...

Anyone knows what specificly is integrated?

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jacalata
Uber is illegal in multiple US cities as well, but that hasn't stopped them
operating anywhere that I've heard.

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NicoJuicy
Uber or UberPop? From what i understand, those are 2 different things.

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jacalata
I haven't heard of UberPop in the US: a quick google says it sounds like a
more open version of UberX, so it would also be illegal: the sticking point is
drivers without a professional license/commercial insurance taking money from
people for rides. In the US the version of Uber that uses professional drivers
is technically called Uber Black: in my experience when people say "Uber" they
mean UberX (because it's cheaper and so more popular).

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jamesgeck0
The lane information they're adding to the UI is great, but I hope it's added
to the navigator voice, too.

There haven't been many times when I've had to cross three lanes of traffic in
a hurry because Google Maps waited until the last minute to tell me to turn
right, but they tend to be memorable when they happen.

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DigitalSea
This is fantastic news for Uber. In my city Uber is only just starting to roll
out properly, but when I recently visited San Francisco everyone in the tech
space travels around using Uber, so I gave it a go and it was fantastic.

To those saying this is a move by Google to test the waters for a ride sharing
service of their own, Google Ventures invested $258,000,000 into Uber, it
would be cheaper for them to just have a large amount of equity in Uber like
they probably already do or just by Uber out if it gains massive momentum.

You have to understand when you get to the size Google has it becomes more
economical and cheaper for a company to just buy out any competing service or
take a massive chunk of equity. Large companies rarely innovate, they purchase
and absorb already established and researched companies & niches.

I can honestly see sometime in the future Google and Uber teaming up together
to create driver-less Uber vehicles. Uber have already removed the payment on
the spot step with credit card/Paypal integration, why not eliminate the
driver as well?

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ignostic
I did not see that coming - does anyone know whether money changed hands here?
It'll be interesting to see how Lyft and others respond.

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mindotus
Google Ventures is an investor.

~~~
maxmcd
Yes, but as mentioned in the article: "Google always maintains its venture arm
operates independently from the rest of the organization"

Are there other examples of something like this happening to a GV backed
company?

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aetherson
I'm sure that the venture arm operates independently of main Google -- but
it's not like the folks at Google Maps are somehow unaware of the fact that GV
sunk a quarter-billion into Uber.

And Uber is one of the, if not THE, biggest investments GV has made. They have
$1.5 billion in assets, according to Wikipedia
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Ventures](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Ventures)).
So 1/6th of all their assets is Uber. Which means that asking whether other
GV-invested companies have experienced easier Google integrations is not all
that meaningful -- Uber is an outlier.

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hu_me
This is actually an interesting monetization experiment for google maps.

Google might create an ad type allowing all the different ride sharing
companies to bid on this ad space. Should be able to attract pretty good cpm
considering the user has already shown clear intent.

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JosephHatfield
How is this helpful to the Google Maps user? If I'm looking for an Uber ride,
I couldn't care less about opening Google Maps. I just open Uber and request a
car.

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philsnow
you've presupposed the user wants an uber.

usually what the user wants is to no longer be where they are, but where they
want to be, and they'd be equally alright with taking a bus or subway.

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akavi
Could this not have anti-trust implications?

This seems very analogous to Microsoft's tying of IE and Windows, considering
Google's dominant position with regards to maps.

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raldi
Microsoft was declared a monopoly in large part because there were huge
barriers to their users switching to another platform. They were totally
locked in.

In the maps world, there's no such lock-in. It's trivial to switch from Google
Maps to some other mapping service.

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sarreph
And, before long, the road will be jammed full of _Gübers_...

