New Delhi: Watch out, Uber and Lyft: Google may be in your rear-view mirror. Search engine giant Google is reportedly working on its own app-based ride-sharing service to compete with Uber and Lyft, possibly in conjunction with the company's heralded driverless-car program.
The move would put Uber in competition with one of its biggest backers, Google Ventures. Google has already invested $258 million in August 2013 through Google Ventures.
If Google, at all, decides to go it alone in the ride-hailing world, then Uber, which last week addressed one of its regulatory concerns by offering per-mile insurance for its drivers, might just lose a major financial backer. Uber's app depends upon Google Maps to allow customers to find drivers, and vice versa.
Losing that data would presumably leave the company reliant on one of Google Maps' competitors, which generally are considered inferior.
Google has been pretty active in making the future of transportation brighter, which is more evident than with its driverless-car initiative. Last month, the company unveiled a prototype of one of the cars, which it hopes will be street-legal by the end of the decade.
