Google Uber Squabble Makes Press Breathless

Burney Simpson

The rumblings of a San Andreas Fault earthquake may have shaken the consumer side of the driverless technology industry this week as Mountain View, Calif.-based Google (Googl) and San Francisco-based Uber appeared to be splitting up, and preparing to compete in the taxi-hailing market.

At least that’s what some in the media breathlessly theorized following dueling announcements from the two giants. On Monday Uber and Carnegie Mellon University said that they had formed a strategic partnership to develop autonomous vehicles and mapping technology, and that much of the work will be done at CMU’s National Robotics Engineering Center.

That intriguing item—actual news—was nearly forgotten following an “exclusive” leak to Bloomberg Business that Google is developing its own driverless-vehicle taxi service. The back story is that Uber and Google first got linked up two years ago when Google Ventures, the Internet giant’s venture cap arm, invested $258 million in Uber, according to Bloomberg Business.

So what’s happened since 2013 that driven the two apart? Is disruptive Uber sneaking off because Google doesn’t meet its autonomous research needs? Or is dastardly Google kicking newcomer Uber to the curb after using it to learn how to take on the entrenched taxi companies?

There are more twists here than a season of Downton Abbey.

When things simmer down, Silicon Valley may laugh about it and blame the tiff on over-eager PR teams slugging down one too many ventis. After all, this brouhaha comes down to a driverless taxi-style service that probably won’t be available for years — except maybe, MAYBE — in a limited test mode. In a mid-size northern California city. That’s just not worth fighting over.

Or is it?