You would think so but having closely watched this online maps space for more than 10 years there was almost no-one who managed to really compete with Google on delivering nicer maps and nicer satellite views. Yahoo Maps used to have a more useful reverse geo-location API at the very beginning (I think 2005-2006) but shortly after Google caught up even there and they haven’t been surpassed by anyone since then.

Sure, I'm not saying it's easy, but still out of all other things they'd be up against, it'd be on the easier side...

Apple tried it and failed, with a much bigger available budget, but, yeah, maybe if Uber manages to hire the right people from the very beginning they might pull it off.

It's one of the most capital and labor intensive things you can do on the internet. Data freshness, depth, and quality are key and don't come cheap.