Google denies reports of starting taxi hailing service

A tweet from Google, on Monday, appeared to deny a report it was readying a ride-sharing service that would rival Uber, Hindustan Times reported.

"We think you'll find Uber and Lyft work quite well," said at the internet titan's official @google Twitter account. "We use them all the time."

The internet search company was referring AFP to the tweet in response to a request regarding a Bloomberg report citing an unnamed source as saying that the California company was developing its own car-hailing service, probably in connection with its work on self-driving cars.

The report appeared on the same day that Uber and Carnegie Mellon University announced a partnership for collaboration on a centre devoted to research and development of mapping, car safety, and autonomous vehicle technology.

According to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, the news had been blown out of proportion.

He added, a Google engineer has been simply testing an internal app that helped Google employees carpool to work, and the app had nothing to do with Google's driverless car programme.

Google an early Uber backer had also invested in the controversial ride-sharing service through its venture capital arm.

Meanwhile, ZD Net reported that Uber and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) had signed a strategic partnership to launch the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to focus on technology developments for improving customer safety.

The company hinted that as part of the centre, researchers would seek to develop driverless cars, and also technology around vehicle safety.

"The partnership will provide a forum for Uber technology leaders to work closely with CMU faculty, staff, and students -- both on campus and at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) -- to do research and development, primarily in the areas of mapping and vehicle safety and autonomy technology," Uber said in a blog post.

According to Jeff Holden, Uber chief product officer, the partnership would be an opportunity for the company to invest in projects that would "enable the safe and efficient movement of people and things at giant scale".

Uber's focus on safety followed several incidents that had resulted in legal action against the company in South Korea, India, Europe, Australia, China, and the US. The company had also to suspend operations in New Dehli, after one of its drivers was accused of allegedly raping a passenger.