Ola exits Google Maps, to save Rs 100 cr with shift to in-house Ola Maps

Homegrown ride-hailing app Ola Cabs has exited Google Maps and has shifted to its own Ola Maps for operations. Bhavish Aggarwal, cofounder and Chairman of Ola Group, while announcing this update said the company would save nearly Rs 100 crore a year.

Last month after leaving Azure, Aggarwal said Ola Group has fully exited Google Maps. He asked users to check their Ola apps and update if required.

"After Azure exit last month, we’ve now fully exited Google maps. We used to spend Rs 100 crore a year but we’ve made that 0 this month by moving completely to our in house Ola maps! Check your Ola app and update if needed," Aggarwal said.

The company is currently developing enhancements such as street view, neural radiance fields (NERFs), indoor images, 3D maps, and drone maps for Ola Maps, as stated by Aggarwal. Additionally, cloud services from Krutrim AI will offer application programming interfaces (APIs) for Ola Maps. An API is a software interface utilized by multiple computer programs or components to facilitate communication.

Krutrim Cloud offers GPU-as-a-service on its AI computing infrastructure, allowing enterprises and developers to train and fine-tune their models.

The announcement was made three months after Ola Group successfully transitioned all of its workload to Krutrim, its in-house AI firm, following the termination of its partnership with Microsoft Azure.

In a post on X in May, Aggarwal had announced the company's decision to end its relationship with Azure and shift all of its operations to Krutrim within a week. At the launch of Krutrim AI, Ola Group also revealed plans to offer cloud services and mapping solutions.

While launching Krutrim AI, Ola said that there will be mapping solutions as well within the cloud services.

On June 28, Aggarwal announced prices for Krutrim AI’s cloud GPUs on demand, starting at Rs 105 per hour to more than Rs 1,160 per hour, depending on the types of GPU being used.