Ola Cabs switches to own mapping service, saving Rs100 cr annually

Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Cabs is replacing Google Maps with home grown mapping service, Ola Maps, the ride-hailing aggregator announced on Friday.

Ola Maps offers features such as street view, neural radiance fields (NERFs), indoor images, 3D maps, and drone maps enabling full transitioning to in-house mapping service.

The move, which helps Ola Cabs save nearly Rs100 crore annually, comes after its recent exit from Microsoft’s Azure platform to its own cloud platform Krutrim.

Sharing the information on Twitter on Friday, Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal sought public comments and suggestioncs on the new app.

Ola Maps, which currently supports the mapping requirements of Ola Cabs, will be integrated into Ola’s electric two-wheelers through a software update in January.

Ola had, in October 2021, acquired Pune-based GeoSpoc, which specialises in geospatial services.

Agarwal decided to abandon the Azure cloud platform after Microsoft-owned LinkedIn removed Aggarwal’s post on ‘pronoun illness’ criticising LinkedIn’s wild thinking on gender pronouns.

The loss of Ola, a major customer in India, results in an annual loss of Rs100 crore to Microsoft.

Agarwal has also offered a full year free usage of its cloud platform to  other developers wanting to permanently move out of the Azure platform.