It has long been known that Google was looking to beef up its own Maps offerings, however now it has the personnel to help with that. The company just poached Brian McClendon, the former head of Google Maps.
McClendon will be working as the head of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, which is largely staffed by engineers from Carnegie Mellon. McClendon himself, however, will work from San Francisco.
"We're thrilled that Brian is joining the Uber team. He led the development of Google Earth and Google Maps, truly world-class products, from the early days, and he's an extraordinarily talented engineer and entrepreneur," said Jeff Holden, Uber Chief Product Officer.
While in his new position McClendon will likely to working on Uber's own maps program, perhaps more interesting is the fact that he will also be overseeing the company's self-driving car project.
Of course, maps is an area where Uber could greatly improve. The company currently relies on Google Maps for its location data within the Uber app, however it has long been expected that the company would try and reduce its dependence on Google, largely because of the competition between the two companies when it comes to autonomous vehicles. Google has very publically been working on self-driving cars for some time now, and while Uber is a relatively new entrance into the market, it is working with some top engineers and clearly has serious interest in the project, and for good reason. If the company was able to take advantage of autonomous car technology, it might not have to hire so many drivers.
In fact, the news comes at the same time as a ruling in California, in which it was decided that a in San Francisco was an employee of the company, rather than an independent contractor, as Uber states. This could potentially lead to huge fees for the company, which may eventually have to hire drivers as employees, at least in certain areas. The case was initiated by driver Barbara Ann Berwick, who said that Uber owed her unpaid wages and expenses. Uber has long held to saying that it was a platform used to connect drivers and passengers.
Of course, Uber, being valued at $40 billion, is certainly able to pay the fees in this particular case, however it could have a significant impact on the company's business model and how it is regulated. The company stressed that the ruling only applies to one driver and that it is non-binding.
Uber is certainly in a state of transition and it will be interesting to see the Uber of 2020 compared to the Uber of 2015.
