Google-Uber Spat Exposes Uber’s Achilles Heel
Uber is at risk of competitors until it will possibly build defensible applied sciences.
The know-how in the back of on-demand taxi services is rather cheap and easy to advance—a indisputable fact that has spurred dozens of startups and forced Uber to chase dizzying growth within the hopes of successful first-mover advantage in new markets.
but with local authorities tapping the brakes and competitors gaining momentum, Uber for the primary time is acknowledging that attaining critical mass in cities world wide is a short-term restoration, not a long-term strategy. To win over the lengthy-term, the corporate—lately valued at $forty billion—must invest in proprietary technology.
Awkwardly and perhaps inevitably, these investments are taking the type of tasks related to mapping and driverless cars—both areas that Google, which invested $258 million in Uber by way of its undertaking capital division, has pioneered. When Uber introduced (February 05, 2015) that it would be partnering with Carnegie Mellon college so as “to do research and development, essentially within the areas of mapping and vehicle safety and autonomy technology,” commentators have been quick to pounce.
“There are signs that the companies usually tend to be ferocious opponents than allies,” Bloomberg mentioned, reporting in an unique that the companies had been “going to conflict over self-riding taxis.” Bloomberg even claimed that Google was already testing a experience-hailing app prototype and predicted that David Drummond, the hunt large’s chief felony officer, would have to resign from his seat on the Uber board of administrators.
Google refuted those rumors (February 05, 2015) via voicing its continued fortify for Uber (and Lyft) in a tweet.
Then the Wall street Journal weighed in, reporting that Bloomberg’s story had been “blown out of proportion”; that Google prototype, the newspaper stated, is for employee carpooling.
having said that, the quick-lived brouhaha serves as but any other reminder that Uber’s scale does now not make it invincible. whereas the startup fights prison and regulatory battles,
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