In a bid to build its own mapping technology, Uber is acquiring part of mapping assets from Microsoft’s Bing, as per a latest report from Tech Crunch. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The assets include the cameras Microsoft used to collect mapping imagery data, a datacenter in Colorado, intellectual property and roughly 100 engineers who have worked primarily on Bing maps and image collection. The Bing team included in the deal will join Uber’s Advanced Technologies group under Brian McClendon. Microsoft already receives map data from Nokia and other partners, but had been collecting its own aerial, 3-D and street-level maps.
“Over the past year, we have taken many actions to focus the company’s efforts around our core business strategy. In keeping with these efforts, we will no longer collect mapping imagery ourselves, and instead will continue to partner with premium content and imagery providers for underlying data while concentrating our resources on the core user experience.”
said Microsoft in a statement.
Uber has been striving hard to build its own mapping technology for some time now as at present it uses Google Maps data to power its apps for drivers and rider. The company acquired mapping tech start-up deCarta and teamed up with Baidu to bid for Nokia HERE Maps.