Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder and CEO of Ola, is urging developers to transition from using Google Maps to Ola Maps. Ola is offering developers a complimentary year-long access to Ola Maps via its Krutrim Cloud, along with more than 100 crore rupees in free credits. This move follows Ola’s decision to replace Google Maps with its proprietary Ola Maps, resulting in annual savings of approximately 100 crore rupees. Aggarwal recently migrated Ola’s operations from Microsoft Azure to Krutrim Cloud as well.
Aggarwal announced on X that “After #ExitAzure, it’s time for Indian developers to #ExitGoogleMaps! One-year free access to all developers to Ola Maps on @Krutrim, more than Rs 100 crore in free credits.” He emphasized that Western mapping apps have historically struggled with India’s unique geographical and navigational challenges, such as complex traffic patterns, non-standard roads, and rapidly changing urban landscapes. Ola Maps, powered by AI-driven algorithms tailored for India, utilizes real-time data from millions of vehicles and actively contributes to open-source initiatives.
In a blog post, Ola stated that its reliance on Western mapping providers hindered the development of cutting-edge features for customer and partner apps in the post-pandemic era of 2021. This realization led to the creation of Ola Maps, aimed at better serving Indian users and advancing mobility innovations like autonomous vehicles and drones. Ola Maps strives to offer detailed, dynamic, and intelligent mapping solutions that address local needs, including multi-language support and culturally relevant landmarks, while ensuring sensitive location data remains within India.
Ola’s ambitious mapping initiative, which began three years ago, leverages AI, open-source data, and India’s rich talent pool to create accurate and secure mapping solutions. Ola Maps integrates diverse data sources, including real-time updates from millions of vehicles and partnerships with governmental and proprietary data repositories, to ensure up-to-date and reliable navigation information. The platform is now widely deployed across Ola’s ecosystem, supporting daily use by tens of thousands of customers for guided commutes and handling millions of search queries daily for Ola Electric users.
