There'd still be a lot to differentiate on if you remove the driver - car quality (nicer/bigger/quieter cars), speed of journey (who has the best routing algorithm that uses the most real world sensors to route around problems), the most cars (so your wait is shorter), the most reliable network (plenty of redundant cars waiting if yours breaks down), the best app features, and so on.
Removing the driver won't be the last innovation these companies do.
Google has an advantage over Uber in all of those respects though - more capital, more experience building highly-available services, better routing algorithms, better contacts with carmakers, owns both the OS that the app will run on and the map data that they use to navigate, etc.
All of that pales in comparison to the fact that google has a direct line to more users. They can auto update their apps and allow people to book a driverless car.
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There'd still be a lot to differentiate on if you remove the driver - car quality (nicer/bigger/quieter cars), speed of journey (who has the best routing algorithm that uses the most real world sensors to route around problems), the most cars (so your wait is shorter), the most reliable network (plenty of redundant cars waiting if yours breaks down), the best app features, and so on.
Removing the driver won't be the last innovation these companies do.
Google has an advantage over Uber in all of those respects though - more capital, more experience building highly-available services, better routing algorithms, better contacts with carmakers, owns both the OS that the app will run on and the map data that they use to navigate, etc.
All of that pales in comparison to the fact that google has a direct line to more users. They can auto update their apps and allow people to book a driverless car.