Google, Uber Developing Rival Products

(RTTNews) - In an ironic twist, Uber, the app-based transportation company, may possibly face rivalry from its key investor and search engine giant Google.

Google, which in August 2013 invested $258 million in Uber, is planning its own ride-hailing service, mostly in tandem with its ambitious driverless car project, says Bloomberg.

David Drummond, Google chief legal officer and senior vice president of corporate development and also a member of the Uber board, has informed Uber's board of this possibility, Bloomberg said.

Not to be left behind, Uber is teaming up with Carnegie Mellon University for a research facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to develop its own driverless car and mapping technology. Uber currently relies on mapping technology created by Google, Apple and its own maps.

The mutual foray into each other's turf and pet project only goes to prove that there are no permanent friends in the tech space.

Google recently said its driverless car technology in development is about two to five years from being ready for widespread use.

Google's plans has somewhat set the alarm bells ringing at Uber, which knows too well that the search engine giant is not only financially sound, but also technically competent.

Uber's service mainly uses Google Maps, which gives Google precious data about transportation patterns within cities.

If Google has its way, Uber, apart from being hurt by the loss of access to Google's mapping application, would also be left without a partner to develop driverless car technology.

But all the noise about Google competing with Uber is unwarranted. The Wall Street Journal, quoting a person familiar with the matter, said that Google's development of an app to rival Uber has been blown out of proportion.

According to the Journal, a Google engineer has been testing an internal app that helps Google employees carpool to work, and the app isn't associated with the company's driverless cars program.