Google expands nascent ride-sharing service

Alphabet Inc.’s executive, David Drummond, who was a director on the Uber board, has stepped down as the two companies increasingly clash over the future of the autonomous vehicle business. Uber has been developing its own mapping operation and is shooting street photography to create an alternative to Google’s map data. At least not yet. Drummond joined Uber’s board in 2013 after then-Google (their Ventures arm, to be specific) invested $250 million into the company. That’s when Drummond came on board.

A test vehicle for Uber’s self-driving auto.

Google is now the leader of the driverless vehicles race via Google Self-Driving Car project (SDC); Uber’s efforts in the field are unbalancing the relationship, as the company is testing self-driving taxis for passengers in the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

During press rounds for that announcement, Kalanick repeatedly mentioned the need to catch up to Google’s efforts (not calling out the company by name but referring to “our friends in Mountain View”).

Uber said the program would begin with the cars carrying company “co-pilots”, engineers and safety personnel. Drummond has even mentioned that Google Ventures remains a staunch investor in Uber. While Google has been doing autonomous vehicle research for years, Uber partnered with Carnegie Mellon and recently announced that it will be introducing fully autonomous taxis in Pittsburgh this year. Currently, Uber is not planning to bring a replacement for Drummond.

Drummond in a written note to Reuters says that he recently quit from Uber’s board due to the overlap between the two companies. Those businesses are referred to as ride-hailing in the fact that riders hail drivers like an on-demand vehicle or taxi service.

Google is reportedly readying to expand its Waze carpool service in the San Francisco Bay Area.

But Google has also started utilizing Waze in a few other ways. And Israeli users can also use Waze as a ride-sharing service, allowing riders to hitch a ride with drivers going in their direction (for a fee). This is because Drummond is the senior vice president of corporate development and also the chief legal officer of Alphabet, Inc., Google’s parent company. But driverless. The company is already testing a feature in the traffic app Waze that lets about 65,000 workers in San Francisco city to share rides together to work.