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)

It probably could be provided by a 20% free time project at Google with their worldwide infrastructure, no?

>It probably could be provided by a 20% free time project at Google

Now there's a reference I have not heard in a long, long time.

Google doesn't still do that, do they?

Sure they do. It's not necessarily enshrined by some teams but as an individual initiative it is always possible.

It appears it's gone now from some quick Googling (the irony). My age is showing.

It still very much exists.

Source: I work there

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...

I heard some guys work on internal Haskell microservices trying to popularize the language within the company

The tech isn't the hard part

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.

Google is infamously bad at resolving or even acknowledging customer service problems.