Ola CEO Launches Ola Maps, Cuts Google Maps Costs From ₹100 Cr To Zero

Ola announced a shift from Google Maps to its in-house mapping service, Ola Maps, on July 5, following its recent exit from Microsoft's Azure platform. 

CEO Bhavish Aggarwal shared the news on Twitter, highlighting the cost savings from this move.

CEO Bhavish Aggarwal took to Twitter to share the news. "After Azure exit last month, we’ve now fully exited Google Maps. We used to spend ₹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 😉," 

After Azure exit last month, we’ve now fully exited google maps. We used to spend ₹100 cr 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 😉

Also, Ola maps API available on @Krutrim cloud! Many more… pic.twitter.com/wYj1Q1YohO

— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) July 5, 2024

The company is adding new features to Ola Maps, including street view, neural radiance fields (NERFs), indoor images, 3D maps, and drone maps. Krutrim AI, Ola's sister company, will provide an API for Ola Maps, and Ola is moving its IT workload from Microsoft's Azure to Krutrim's cloud.

This decision was made after Microsoft's LinkedIn removed a post where Aggarwal referred to the use of the pronoun 'they' as an "illness" violating LinkedIn's community policies.

Just days after Krutrim AI, founded by Aggarwal, opened its cloud infrastructure and services for businesses. Krutrim Cloud offers GPU-as-a-service on its AI computing infrastructure, allowing enterprises and developers to train and fine-tune their models. 

On May 22, Aggarwal posted that they had moved all of its workloads out of Azure within a week.

Solid-State Batteries:

Aggarwal is also planning to power its electric scooters with solid-state batteries by next year. 

Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder and chairman, announced the company's intention to use their cells for the scooters, which are top sellers in India. 

Commercial production is set to begin at its gigafactory in Southern Tamil Nadu at the same time.

The gigafactory, run by its Electric subsidiary, has been selected for India's battery manufacturing incentive scheme to enhance local production and reduce imports. 

Solid-state batteries offer improved safety, longer lifespan, and faster charging compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries.