Google developing an Uber competitor app — with driverless cars

Uber faces an ever-growing cast of adversaries that includes dubious regulators, litigious drivers and some well-funded rivals. But the most significant threat to the app-based transportation company may be much closer to home: one of its biggest investors, Google. Google is preparing to offer its own ride-hailing service, most likely in conjunction with its long-in-development driverless car project. David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer and senior vice president of corporate development, who joined the Uber board of directors in 2013, has informed the company of this possibility, according to a person close to the Uber board. Uber executives have also seen screenshots of what appears to be a Google ride-sharing app that is currently being used by Google employees.

The Uber experience is expensive because it’s not just the car but the other dude in the car. When there’s no other dude in the car, the cost [of taking an Uber] gets cheaper than owning a vehicle.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who has publicly discussed what he sees as the inevitability of autonomous taxis

Google CEO Larry Page is said to be personally fascinated by the challenge of making cities operate more efficiently. The company recently said the driverless car technology in development within its Google X research lab is between two and five years from being ready for widespread use. At the Detroit auto show last month, Chris Urmson, the Google executive in charge of the project, articulated one possible scenario in which autonomous vehicles are patrolling neighborhoods, picking up and dropping off passengers.

We’re thinking a lot about how in the long-term, this might become useful in people’s lives, and there are a lot of ways we can imagine this going. One is in the direction of the shared vehicle. The technology would be such that you can call up the vehicle and tell it where to go and then have it take you there.

Chris Urmson, the Google executive in charge of the autonomous vehicles project

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