Uber Technologies is buying digital mapping specialist deCarta in a deal that might help the rapidly growing ride-hailing service lessen its dependence on navigation services from Google and Apple.
Although deCarta is not as well known as Google Maps, its technology is used extensively by consumers. The OnStar system built into cars made by General Motors relies on deCarta, as do smartphone makers Samsung Electronics and BlackBerry.
In its early years, Google Maps even tapped into deCarta's technology, according to deCarta.
The acquisition confirmed on Wednesday will provide Uber's drivers with another way to find passengers summoning rides on the company's mobile app and deliver them to their destinations more quickly.
DeCarta's technology also might help Uber provide more accurate estimates about the arrival times of its cars, which can be ordered in more than 250 cities in 50 countries.
The deCarta deal comes a month after an unconfirmed report that Google is planning a rival ride-hailing service that would draw on the driverless cars the company has been building and testing for the past few years.
Uber fuelled further speculation about a looming battle with Google by forging a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University to work on its own driverless cars.
A report published in The Wall Street Journal outlined Apple's plans to reshape the car industry with an electric vehicle, a development that conceivably could set up the iPhone maker to compete against Uber.
For now, Uber says it plans to blend deCarta's technology with the Google and Apple maps it already uses.
Privately held Uber has plenty of financial firepower, having raised nearly $US3 billon ($A3.84 billion). Investors involved in that financing have valued the six-year-old company at about $US40 billion.
All told, Uber has raised nearly $US6 billion since its inception, including a $US258 million infusion from Google's venture capital arm in 2013.
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