Exit Google Maps, Enter Ola Maps

Ola has been using Google Maps for six years now (likely March 2016 onwards). Earlier, users could book Ola cabs directly through the Google Maps app (but now that option also seems to have magically disappeared). Meanwhile, the Ola Maps search feature on the app still shows that it is powered by Google.

After announcing a huge exit from Google Maps and shifting completely to self-built Ola Maps, CEO Bhavish Aggarwal yesterday announced that the company is giving one-year free access to Ola Maps on Krutrim Cloud, offering credits worth up to INR 100 crore. Developers have mixed emotions.?

‘Reinventing maps’

“After #ExitAzure, it’s time for ????developers to #ExitGoogleMaps!” affirmed Aggarwal, saying how we’ve been using Western apps to map India for too long, and they don’t get our unique challenges: street names, urban changes, complex traffic, non-standard roads, etc.?

Further, he said that Ola Maps tackles these with AI-powered India-specific algorithms and real-time data from millions of vehicles, leveraging and contributing massively to open source (5 million+ edits just last year!)?

“We’re outperforming competitors on ?? Location accuracy ?? Search accuracy ?? Search latency ?? ETA accuracy,” said Aggarwal.?

Why build Ola Maps when you already have MapMyIndia? – asked many developers. “Is this just a wrapper over Mappi (MapMyIndia)? Or is it a wrapper over MapBox? Or is it a wrapper over Here Maps?” asked mobile app developer Arnav Gupta, saying that his money is on MapBox, but the jingoistic crowd would have been happier if it was Mappi.?

Ola's blog post revealed none of these details. However, it said it is built on a combination of real-time data from Ola vehicles, OpenStreetMap, open-source government data, partnerships, and proprietary sources.?

This new development comes as ISRO recently released Geoportal-Bhuvan, which is 10 times better than Google Maps.?

What’s next for Ola Maps??

Ola said that its Maps is not just for current needs but aims to build the cartographic infrastructure for future mobility innovations, including autonomous vehicles and drones. The team said that the journey began three years ago to revolutionise mobility through comprehensive and dynamic mapping solutions.

Further, it said that Ola Maps' upcoming features include street view, neural radiance fields (NERFs), indoor images, 3D maps, and drone maps. Ola Maps API is now available on Krutrim Cloud, offering a suite of location services designed to support enterprises focusing on localised location services.

This comes quickly on the heels of Aggarwal announcing the company’s exit from Microsoft Azure last month to build its own cloud infrastructure. It has migrated its entire database from AWS and Microsoft Azure to the Krutrim AI Cloud. According to an estimate, Ola will save INR 15 crore by doing this.

The Upskilling Mania of Indian IT Knows No End

It is crazy to witness the upskilling mania currently rampant across the tech industry. The Indian IT industry, especially, has stopped hiring freshers and is in a bid to upskill its existing employees with generative AI.?

IT giants believe this will boost the productivity of their employees. But at what point will this upskilling end? Read to find out.?

INDIA?

• A recent study by Tenable revealed that 73% of Indian enterprises plan to adopt generative AI within the next 12 months, despite only 8% having high confidence in its effective implementation, with challenges including technological immaturity (71%) and security concerns (40%).
• Adobe recently announced that it is expanding its generative AI team in India, hiring researchers in fields like natural language processing, computer vision, and deep learning to develop and prototype AI innovations for its cloud products.
• IBM recently launched a GenAI Innovation Centre in Kochi to help enterprises, startups, and partners build and scale generative AI technology using IBM watsonx, InstructLab, and other advanced AI tools.?