As far as companies go, Google and Uber have been pretty close. Google Ventures is one of Uber's biggest investors, and Uber is the only third party listed as a transportation method in Google Maps, which will kick users right out to the Uber app. With Uber's biggest expense being the drivers and Google working on a self-driving car, it was often speculated that the two companies would partner up, or Google would just acquire Uber.

Today, all at once, this chummy relationship seems to have unraveled. The two companies are reportedly moving into each other's territories: Google is working on a ride-sharing app, and Uber is developing self-driving cars.

A report from Bloomberg lays out the Google side of things. With Google investing so much into Uber, David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, was put on Uber's board of directors. Much like when Eric Schmidt was on Apple's board and had to inform the group about Android, Drummond reportedly told the Uber board that Google was working on a ride-sharing app of its own.

The report says that Uber executives have seen screenshots of Google's ride sharing app, and it's currently being testing by Google employees. Bloomberg also states that the project is "likely in conjunction" with Google's self-driving car project. Self-driving cars will be prohibitively expensive for the first few years, so a taxi service would be a great idea once the project gets approved for non-testing road use. A ride-sharing service is probably the best path to commercialization for self-driving cars, and with no drivers to pay, Google could provide a taxi service for much cheaper than Uber or traditional taxi services.

Google having a ride-sharing app already in development is rather surprising, considering that Google's self-driving car project isn't expected to be ready for mass consumption until at least 2017. Perhaps Google will fill the gap with human testers while it works on the app, or maybe it's just for internal Google use and not as serious as the report makes it out to be.

TechCrunch brings us the Uber side of the story, which reportedly has Uber opening a robotics research facility to work on building self-driving cars of its own. The report says Uber has been recruiting from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute to kickstart the project, and while this is all from "sources close to the decision," an announcement is expected soon. Apparently the company has snatched up "more than 50 senior scientists from Carnegie Mellon as well as from the National Robotics Engineering Center."

Uber will have a big task ahead of it according to TechCrunch, which says Uber will be "developing the core technology, the vehicles, and associated infrastructure" to make a self-driving car work. Google, on the other hand, has been working on self-driving cars since at least early 2009, and it says the technology still has several more years of development before its ready to go. To compete with Uber, Google just needs to develop an app. On the other hand, it seems like a tall order for Uber, a company that traditionally hasn't had to attract robotics engineers or do any hardcore R&D on this scale.

If the reports are true, the fallout should continue over the next few months. The next pieces to the puzzle could be 1) Drummond leaving the Uber board due to the conflict of interest, and 2) Uber getting kicked out of Google Maps.

Update: The Wall Street Journal is refuting Bloomberg's report of Google's ridesharing app, with a source saying that the situation has been "blown out of proportion." The report says that the app is an internal tool meant to help Google employees carpool to work and "isn't associated with the company’s driverless cars program."

Still, The Journal mentions that Uber and Google have been "working at arms length" for some time, and that Uber, in addition to its own self-driving car program, is working on a mapping system that would free it from Google and Apple Maps.

If this report is to be believed, Uber is competing with Google, but Google isn't competing with Uber just yet. If Google's self-driving car program ever does become a commercial product though, it's hard to imagine it not thoroughly disrupting the existing taxi and ridesharing services out there. It sounds like Uber is preparing itself.