Google's Former Head To Join Uber

Mr. Brain McClendon to join Uber to head its mapping division.

Uber, the taxi hailing app service has taken several important steps this season to improve its service on the whole. According to recent news, the company now wishes to further mold its mapping technology for which it hired Mr. Brian McClendon a Google executive to take over this domain.

Mr. McClendon is a former Google Inc. employee who joined the search engine giant when they bought Keyhole Inc. - a software development firm that provided technology to be used with Google Earth in FY04. Mr. McClendon was responsible to look after popular Google products that include Street View, Earth, Map but was later replaced by Mr. Jen Fitzpatrick as the Vice President of engineering in 2004. He offered his services to the company for 10 years so now that Uber has poached a significant person, it indicates that the company is taking its mapping tech seriously.

The company has already confirmed that they have Mr. McClendon on board. Mr. Jeff Holden, the Chief Product Officer at Uber believes that the arrival of Mr. McClendon will boost the company’s mapping business and take over Uber’s mapping, car safety program and driverless cars. Mr. Holden expressed his concerns to Re/Code by saying, “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.”

Mr. McClendon will now head the Uber’s Pittsburgh Advanced Technologies Center. This site is an integral asset for research and development for the company that is currently manned by the recruited engineers from the Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center

Mr. McClendon also mentioned to Re/Code: “There aren’t many places that offer the opportunity to make as big an impact as Google Maps, but I believe that Uber has an incredibly exciting future as it continues to fundamentally change how people live and improve quality of life.”

This is not the first time that Uber has hired Google personnel but previously also the company had hired several former Google employees. This includes tom Fallows and Rachel Whetstone who are heading the communication and global expansion products.

It is great initiative that Uber is now devising its own mapping technology and will stop relying on Apple and Google. Uber’s service is likely to overlap with that of the tech giants in the times to come. The company is trying to overcome the loopholes and make its taxi hailing app one of a kind.