Alphabet’s Waymo to sue Uber and Otto for allegedly stealing self-driving system designs

Google’s self-driving car division, which is now called Waymo, is suing Uber and its self-driving trucking company Otto, for allegedly stealing self-driving system designs.

Anthony Levandowski, a former employee of Waymo, went on to found the self-driving truck company called Otto. This was quickly acquired by Uber Inc. According to Alphabet, Levandowski has allegedly downloaded 14,000 ‘highly confidential’ files to an external hard drive which also includes the design of Waymo’s laser-based object detection and ranging (lidar) circuit board.

Lidar stands for Light Detection and Ranging. It works on the same principles as a radar, but it uses laser light which is shot at surrounding objects to detect them. This works in tandem with the on board cameras of a self-driven car as well as normal radars so that there is a thorough imaging of the surroundings when a car is being autonomously driven.

Alphabet decided to sue Otto and Uber after it stumbled upon mails from a lidar supplier which were copied to a Waymo employee under the subject line ‘Otto Files’, after carrying out a forensic investigation of Levandowski’s company computer. According to Waymo, this email was being sent to Uber employees. Also attached in the mail were drawings of Otto’s lidar circuit board which Waymo alleged looks exactly likes its own.

According to Waymo, Levandowski had downloaded the designs before his resignation. While Waymo said in its complaint that the Replicated Board design reflects Waymo’s proprietary Lidar technology, “The Replicated Board is specifically designed to be used in conjunction with many other Waymo trade secrets and in the context of overall LiDAR systems covered by Waymo patents,” said the complaint.

Apart from Levandowski, according to Waymo’s complaint, other employees who joined Levandowski later, also allegedly downloaded trade secrets such as “supplier lists, manufacturing details and statements of work with highly technical information”.

Waymo requested for public records from the Nevada Governor’s office of Economic Development and Department of Motor Vehicles, pertaining to Otto’s communication. In its response Otto said that the company was using a custom lidar technology that was built in-house. Waymo cited this as evidence saying that the circuit board design was quite similar to its own designs.

Waymo has sued and is seeking damages from Uber as well as Otto for allegedly stealing trade secrets.

In this highly competitive space of self-driven vehicles, Waymo has seen a lot of departures from its teams. A report in Bloomberg gave a very unconventional reason for the departure of some employees – they were reportedly paid a lot of money. And that is being debated as one of the reasons as to why they left.

Some of the popular departures from Google’s car project include Chris Urmson who led the project. Urmson has quit to found his own startup. Some former employees created Otto, the self driving truck which was acquired by Uber Inc.

Bryan Salesky, a former Google car executive founded Argo AI, which recently saw a $1bn investment from Ford Motors.

Along with talent departure, Google has also had run-ins with Uber, as it is pursuing its own autonomous car project. And it is also reported that Uber is working to develop its own maps.

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from http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/alphabets-waymo-to-sue-uber-and-otto-for-allegedly-stealing-self-driving-system-designs-364000.html