Alphabet Says Uber Knew About Stolen Self-Driving Car Files (cnet.com) 25
In a Wednesday filing with a California court, Alphabet said a former self-driving executive Anthony Levandowski hatched a plan with Uber to steal more than 14,000 proprietary documents, including designs for the sensors that help the car see its surroundings. CNET reports: Alphabet says Uber's former CEO, Travis Kalanick, knew about the files but told Levandowski to destroy them. Uber has argued that it did not encourage or condone Levandowski taking any files from Waymo or bringing them to Uber, and has noted that his employment agreement affirmed he wouldn't do that. The litigation between Alphabet and Uber has been reported as a primary reason Kalanick was forced to resign as Uber's CEO Tuesday.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
The funny thing is how big Uber is. 550 employees in 2014. 14,000 in 2017? I mean, who are these people and what do they do besides collect VC-funded paychecks? Sure there's folks developing the service and keeping it running, and more folks developing phone apps, and more folks to work with and around regulators, and now there's a self-driving-vehicles group but we hear it's really hard to find people who do that sort of work and they're in demand over at Tesla and Apple and Waymo too, as well as at some t
Re: Lol (Score:2)
Just in a small market like Hong Kong there is a 100+ team that purely does marketing. This really can't last...
Re: (Score:2)
Lawyers and Lobbyists!
Someone has to be out there greasing palms and complaining about being repressed to the politicians.
Uber Uber Uber (Score:1)
Re:Uber Uber Uber (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
It's not every day you get to watch the slow-motion implosion of a $60+ billion VC baby...
Many of us saw this years ago. When I first read from a leaked Uber document they were losing US$100,000 a quarter, I put a 20 down on them failing before the end of 2018. The bookie happily gave me 100 to 1 odds as the Daily Fail was printing daily advetorials pointing to the imminent death of black cabs at the time. I'm looking forward to that 2000 quid.
Why? (Score:1)
What real world motive would they have to create their own fleet of self-drivers, when you can just wait for GoogleAlpha to do all the R&D, and just buy the final product? I mean, it sounds like something they might have considered for a couple of minutes, but anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together would figure out it was a bad idea all-around.
Re: (Score:2)
Because launching an Uber competitor is easier for Google, and they'd own the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs, instead of licensing the Goose to someone who pays a percentage.
hehe. that sounds plausible...
until you consider what google has been up to. they are far more likely to try some rent a driver and then just get out of the business in 1 year.
google/alphabet has been terrible at copying products from competition. they failed with google video, they failed with google+ despite bolstering its numbers artificially through forced + joins from youtube users(done only for meeting a bonus quota).
they failed with motorola. pixel isn't exactly selling like hotcakes either.
now consi
Wait so... (Score:2, Insightful)
> Alphabet says Uber's former CEO, Travis Kalanick, knew about the files but told Levandowski to destroy them.
That sounds like the more honest thing to do. You know, like they weren't out to steal anything...
Re: (Score:3)
> Alphabet says Uber's former CEO, Travis Kalanick, knew about the files but told Levandowski to destroy them.
That sounds like the more honest thing to do. You know, like they weren't out to steal anything...
Levandowski didn't go straight from Waymo to Uber, after leaving Waymo he started Otto, which was promptly bought up by Uber for a ridiculous amount.
It's likely that the docs that Levandowski took from Waymo helped him build Otto, something of which Uber was surely aware. Telling Levandowski to destroy the docs looks more like an attempt to protect themselves legally (while still acquiring the stolen tech via Otto).
Re: (Score:2)
Levandowski founded Otto in January 2016 and was bought out by Uber in August 2016 for $680 million. It's interesting to note that there were multiple ex-Googlers who were in Otto but only Levandowski has been targeted by Google, which makes me think it isn't 100% purely bitterness by Google.
Yep, destroying evidence is the Democrat/Republic. (Score:1)
> Alphabet says Uber's former CEO, Travis Kalanick, knew about the files but told Levandowski to destroy them.
That sounds like the more honest thing to do. You know, like they weren't out to steal anything...
Alphabet (Score:1)
Did the same thing to Apple when Eric Schmidt wAs on the Apple board and Android suddenly and miraculously and 'coincidrntally' morphed into an iOS/iPhone clone overnight when previously they had been aping Blackberry. I don't give a shit what Alphabet thinks they know, they had it coming, and I hope that the courts treat them the same way they did Apple - i.e. by somehow making the victim appear to be the perpetrator. Fuck Google (I won't dignify their tax evasion scheme passing for a trademark anymore tod
Re: computers driving cars? (Score:1)