I was just about to post this! I've seen some people in the comments on Hacker News suggest OpenStreetMaps or TIGER data as an alternative for Uber. While they're good for mapping purposes, they falls short to use just those sources as a foundation to a self-driving car, as you can see here.Uber would be crippled if it lost access to the industry-leading mapping application, and alternatives— such as AOL's MapQuest, Apple Maps, and a host of regional players—are widely seen as inferior.
Agreed. Yet, I think Google's advantages extend far beyond that. Not only is the problem of the type that Google does very well (information and logistics), but they have an ability to monetize the information in a way that Uber does not. Google can even run it at a loss for an extended period of time just to cripple Uber. My prediction is that this is going to force Uber to go public ahead of schedule.
I watched a Google exec at a meeting once say "people are always mystified by Google but our basic business model is to find a market segment with excess profit and then eliminate all competition by operating at break-even." That's what's going to happen here: Google has figured out that there's no particular reason why someone else should profit from you sharing your car with another person. They'll do to Uber what they did to Groupon: acknowledge that the company operates as an artificial barrier between consumers and vendors and nuke the business from orbit. The fact that Uber created the market segment a few short years ago really doesn't matter to them.
Isn't that Amazon's basic business model as well?I watched a Google exec at a meeting once say "people are always mystified by Google but our basic business model is to find a market segment with excess profit and then eliminate all competition by operating at break-even."