you are truly uninformed. There is so much more to the uber tech stack than this. Delivering rides efficiently, worldwide, at a scale of billions per year is not as easy as swapping out a button on google maps.
You don't have to do I worldwide, which is the problem for Uber. As a passenger, I only need a ride in one place; as a driver, I can only drive in one place. It doesn't cost a lot (for a company with deep pockets) to build the peer to peer stuff, but also lease a hundred cars and temp hire a few hundred people to seed the driver side of the marketplace in a smallish city. If you're Google and can easily drive the passenger side with Google maps integration, great. If you're someone else, get into the ride comparison apps, and put up some local ads. "Tired of Uber? Try Lesser!"
Take a smaller margin (or subsidize more, if the margin is already negative), build the driver side to be aware of and compatible with the reality that drivers are going to be driving for multiple services at once (with the exception of your seed drivers, maybe)
thanks for the information. kind of weird it's not really publicized anymore. Any major products that came out recently as a result? if I recall, Google maps started out that way...
maybe you guys don't like to talk about it anymore though...
The human element isn't either. Google can offer ads to acquire drivers and riders for free through its various ad channels (mobile, search). They already own the verticals necessary.
Take a smaller margin (or subsidize more, if the margin is already negative), build the driver side to be aware of and compatible with the reality that drivers are going to be driving for multiple services at once (with the exception of your seed drivers, maybe)