As part of the Sidecar transaction GM will hire more than a dozen Sidecar employees, including Jahan Khanna, its co-founder and chief technology officer.
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In a post on Sidecar’s site, Paul blamed his company’s failure on Uber and its “win at any cost” mentality, thanks to the .61 billion in capital it has raised to date. Now, with GM’s $500 million investment, Lyft may hold off any pressure that Uber brings to bear. If you want to break into the ride-sharing scene without having to invest billions into your own bespoke service, it’s a wise idea to partner up with a company that already understands the ins and outs. Sunil Paul, another Sidecar co-founder and CEO, will not join GM, according to Bloomberg News. Daimler AG acquired ride-sharing apps RideScout and my taxi in 2014 as it also eyes the spectacle.
San Francisco-based Sidecar was founded about five years ago and competed with Uber and Lyft in the on-demand, ride-sharing market.
Based on San Francisco, Sidecar was actually one of the original peer-to-peer auto sharing programs after it launched in 2012.
All of them will have to work hard to topple Uber, which is regarded as the most valuable, and wealthy, startup in the world. “This is the end of the road for the Sidecar ride and delivery service, but it’s by no means the end of the journey for the company”. They’re also working on their own project, Maven, an “application software for connecting vehicle drivers and passengers and for coordinating transportation services”, according to a USPTO filing.
“We see the future of personal mobility as connected, seamless and autonomous”, GM President Dan Ammann said when the alliance was announced.
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This past November, General Motors filed with the Patent and Trademark official for an app for Maven. As part of the deal, GM will get a license for Sidecar’s 2002 patent for a “System and method for determining an efficient transportation route“. Sidecar executives believed the patent covered the essential intellectual property behind ride-sharing, though Uber and Lyft never responded to Sidecar’s repeated attempts to enforce the patent, this person said.
