Explained: Why Did Ola Cabs Switch From Google Maps To Its Own Ola Maps?

After exiting Microsoft's Azure last month, Ola Cabs has now completely transitioned away from Google Maps to its own in-house Ola Maps, as announced by founder-CEO Bhavish Aggarwal in a post on X.

He mentioned that this strategic move has eliminated the company's annual expenditure of Rs 100 crore on Google Maps, resulting in zero costs by adopting their proprietary Ola Maps.

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Ola Cabs Switch From Google Maps- Here's Why

According to Aggarwal, a range of new features will be introduced in the coming months for Ola Cabs, including street view, neural radiance fields (NERFs), indoor images, 3D maps, and drone maps, among others.

In October 2021, the acquisition of GeoSpoc, a Pune-based company specializing in geospatial services, had been completed by Ola. Ola Maps currently fulfils the mapping requirements for its primary ride-hailing application. The company has also announced plans to integrate Ola Maps into its electric two-wheelers through a software update in January, as reported by Indian Express.

In May, it was disclosed by Aggarwal that the company had decided to migrate its entire workload from Microsoft Azure to its own cloud platform, Krutrim. This decision was a response to an incident involving Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, which removed Aggarwal's post on 'pronoun illness,' wherein he criticized the platform for enforcing a 'forced ideology' regarding gender pronouns.

As a result, Microsoft incurred a financial loss of over Rs 100 crore in India, as Ola was a significant client. Aggarwal extended an invitation to other developers to migrate away from Azure, offering a full year of free cloud usage on the condition that they do not return to Azure afterwards, as reported by Indian Express.

Aggarwal later emphasized the necessity for India to develop its own comprehensive technology stack, including artificial intelligence models, cloud infrastructure, data centers, and chips. He highlighted the importance of a domestic technology stack to lead the AI revolution and reduce reliance on major tech firms.

He noted that while India generates 20 per cent of the world's data, only 3 per cent of it is currently stored within the country. He stressed that "data sovereignty" requires both the location and control of data to be within India, not just the physical real estate, as per media reports.

He advocated for the development of a national cloud technology stack to ensure control over data. Aggarwal emphasized that without building a complete technology stack, India would not be able to harness the full economic and cultural potential of its civilization.

In 2017, a partnership was established between Ola and Microsoft Azure to develop a new connected vehicle platform for car manufacturers worldwide. Azure had joined as the cloud services provider for Ola. In FY23, Microsoft's revenue from India operations had increased by 39 per cent year-on-year to Rs 19,230 crore.

Krutrim, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform made in India, was launched by Aggarwal last year, as reported. Recently, Krutrim introduced AI cloud services under the name Krutrim Cloud to provide developers and enterprises with access to advanced GPU resources, aimed at accelerating their projects and enhancing productivity.