Is Google Developing Its Own Uber?
(CBS SF) -- Google is allegedly preparing to offer its own ride-sharing service along with its driverless car project.
Bloomberg reports Google's chief legal officer David Drummond has informed Uber's board of this possibility and has even shown executives screenshots of what appears to be a Google ride-sharing app that's currently being tested by Google employees.
This should come as a surprise after Google Ventures, the Mountain View company's venture capital arm, invested $258 million in Uber in August 2013 -- Google's largest investment deal ever. Drummond also joined Uber's board of directors that year. Now Uber's board is considering whether to ask Drummond to resign his position on the board, according to a person who asked not to be named because the talks are private.
On Monday, Uber announced its partnership with Carnegie Mellon University for a research facility in Pittsburgh, Pa., to develop its own driverless vehicle technology.
Uber's CEO, Travis Kalanick, has previously said getting rid of drivers would dramatically reduce costs.
"When there is no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere is cheaper. Even on a road trip," he said last year, as quoted by Time.
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The head of self-driving cars for Google expects real people to be using them on public roads in two to five years.
Chris Urmson says the cars would still be test vehicles, and Google would collect data on how they interact with other vehicles and pedestrians.
Google is working on sensors to detect road signs and other vehicles, and software that analyzes all the data. The small, bulbous cars without steering wheels or pedals are being tested at a Google facility in California.