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On Wednesday, Travis Kalanick's beleaguered startup officially launched a new navigation system for its drivers. Features include lane guidance, next turn previews and real-time traffic information. It's also introduced a night-time look to make the app easier on the eyes in the dark.

SEE ALSO: Hey law students: Want a job? Well, you better learn to code.

Rolling out on both iOS and Android, the tool will give Android users access to in-app navigation for the first time. Previously, the latter would have to switch out of Uber's app into Google Maps or Waze to plan their route. On iOS, the update has begun in some cities, but its launch on Android is still in its early stages.

According to Maya Choksi, a senior product manager at Uber, the aim is to provide drivers with an optimal navigation experience.

One of the main complaints from drivers on Uber's iOS app was small font size, she said, but in the past, Uber had little say in how street labels appeared. That was because the company used a number of different mapping APIs "to kind of cobble together" in-app navigation.

"There were a number of things that were really suboptimal about this," she explained. "We had no control over the size of [street] labels or which labels show or don't show. We couldn't control necessarily the name of the street where the driver is supposed to make a right turn."

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Now the team controls more of the mapping stack, and they're able to customise it specifically for the needs of Uber, UberX, UberPool and UberEats drivers -- a far more complicated set of directions than your average commuter trip. If drivers want, they're still free to use the mapping app of their choice.

Manik Gupta, head of products in Uber's Maps team and a Google Maps veteran, said the new stack used mapping providers including TomTom to "mix and match" with Uber's own proprietary data. The new driver navigation will not involve increased tracking of driver data, he added, although route data information always been collected.

"From a Maps perspective, you really want to model the real world as closely as possible. So the more data and the more detail you get about that, the better off you are," Gupta said.

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Both Uber staffers stressed the rollout isn't perfect. "We're are still learning, we are getting tons of driver feedback," Gupta said. For now, for example, the navigation will not immediately re-route when there's traffic ahead in the way Waze does.

The bigger question may be where the navigation tool fits with Uber's self-driving car ambitions. While Gupta would not comment directly, granular features such as lane guidance seem to hint in that direction. Monetising the project by licensing it to third parties was also "not on our radar."

Of course, Google is currently suing Uber, accusing the company of stealing self-driving car secrets, but Wednesday's roll out is not about abandoning its historic reliance on Google Maps. According to Uber, anyway.

In fact, Choksi said Uber had never used a Google base layer map in the iOS driver app -- a point confirmed later by an Uber spokesperson -- and Gupta added the company continued to use Google for rider-side search. "If [a rider] searches for something, it's powered by Google," he said. "There's no real solution that really works for us, that's the whole point."

Under the guidance of former Google Map executive Brian McClendon, Uber launched a global mapping effort in mid-2016 to build maps "tailored to the Uber experience." The project has involved putting cars on the road akin to Google Street View in countries from Australia to Singapore.

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Topics Uber