Late last night, reports emerged that Uber and Google are set for a showdown as Google develops its own ride-sharing app - and Uber starts its own driverless car project to rival Google's.

Google Ventures - the tech company's venture capital division - invested $258m in Uber in August 2013. That was Google Ventures' biggest-ever investment. The company invested more money in Uber less than a year later.

David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer and senior vice president of corporate development is on the Uber board of directors.

Bloomberg reported that an Uber source revealed that Mr Drummond had told the Uber board that Google is working on its own ride-sharing service.

The Google app is currently being used by Google employees. Bloomberg said that it is likely that this will be developed with the company's driverless car project.

The source indicated that there had been a falling-out, and that Mr Drummond may be asked to resign from the Uber board of directors.

Yesterday (Feburary 2nd) Uber announced that it will team up with Carnegie Mellon University to develop its own autonomous vehicle programme.

Neither company has directly commented on the issue since the story broke - but when Business Insider contacted Google for a comment the company directed it towards this tweet.

A follow-up report in the Wall Street Journal now suggests that the story has "been blown out of proportion," it quotes 'a person familiar with the issue,' who clarifies that Google's car-pooling app, "isn't associated with the company's driverless car program."

Speaking to Re/Code, Uber's chief product officer, Jeff Holden said that the company's move into autonomous car research is "part of a long-term strategy for the company," and that it is, "planting seeds for many years into the future."

When asked specifically about strain that this venture could put on its relationship with Google, he replied:

"The Google relationship has many facets to it."

"We very much expect the partnership to continue and be strong for the future, this thing [the dirverless car project] aside. So [there is] no real change in the relationship."

The Uber app is also fully dependent on Google Maps technology to run its service.