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Alphabet Says Uber Knew About Stolen Self-Driving Car Files (cnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the crystal-ball dept.

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.

25 comments

  1. So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mind your property better next time.

  2. Uber Uber Uber by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 0

    Christ Almighty, is this getting tedious...!

    1. Re:Uber Uber Uber by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not every day you get to watch the slow-motion implosion of a $60+ billion VC baby...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    2. Re:Uber Uber Uber by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mmmmm ... hubris will pretty much get you every time.

      I mean, three or four years back, there was Uber making a nice wad of cash taking 20% from drivers, with its execs not over-feeding on their salary packages and it's corporate behaviour emphasising doing the right thing. They invaded a transport space - taxis - that needed to be shaken up.

      But even then the signs were bad. They did everything they could to be parasitic on society - evading taxes, using public infrastructure, and structuring themselves behind a corporate veil that effectively evaded any accountability or responsibility for anything.

      And then they started raising the rates which drivers pay ... and restricting competitors using the same business model ... and pirating IP from others that could be useful to them ... executive remuneration went through the roof ...and a whole host of other naughties.

      And when Travis joined Trump's business advisory body, it pretty much signalled that Uber had lost the plot and had no capacity for serious assessment of its own business model, and regarded itself as one of the great business paragons of the 21st Century - despite never having booked a profit, as it was plundered from within.

    3. Re:Uber Uber Uber by mjwx · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  3. Re:Lol by Anonymous Coward · · 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 traditional vehicle manufacturers. The drivers aren't in that count (it's full-time staff), and the dispatch is done by the machines, so what is all the headcount for? Social networking community managers? Staffing the cafeteria and gym?

  4. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

    1. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      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.

    2. Re:Why? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      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 consider a success from google - android. and it's licensed out.

      however if google could frame uber to be less valued via exec infiltration they could just buy it out.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  5. Wait so... by Anonymous Coward · · 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...

    1. Re:Wait so... by quantaman · · Score: 2

      > 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).

      --
      I stole this Sig
    2. Re:Wait so... by darkmeridian · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
  6. Alphabet by Anonymous Coward · · 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 today).

  7. Economic Espionage is a serious crime in the USA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This casts Kalanick's resignation in a whole new light. Under US law theft of trade secrets is a crime and those Uber executives who knew face serious jail time. They and Uber itself also face fines which while big for you and me are small change against Uber's $70B valuation. But jail time, that is the real deterrent here. Since this is a crime it is beyond the civil courts and the FBI should be investigating.
     
    Google "Economic Espionage Act"

  8. Re: Economic Espionage is a serious crime in the U by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lul, it was you and me, yes.

    Big corps in America? No, they will get a slap on the wrist with a **dr evil voice*** $1 million dollar find.

  9. Re:Economic Espionage is a serious crime in the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This exactly, although in one company I worked at that basically did something like this, one guy was sentenced to 2 years, but the fine was around 1/2 billion. It killed the company. Oh and same judge.

  10. Re: Lol by KramberryKoncerto · · Score: 1

    Just in a small market like Hong Kong there is a 100+ team that purely does marketing. This really can't last...

  11. Re:Lol by Herkum01 · · Score: 1

    Lawyers and Lobbyists!

    Someone has to be out there greasing palms and complaining about being repressed to the politicians.

  12. computers driving cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What could possibly go wrong?
    If they can't keep trans from fucking crashing, how is a pea brain computer going to deal with 100 million variables per second?
    This is dumb fucking idea, unless the cars go 5 miles an hour.

    1. Re: computers driving cars? by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      Are you stupid? When you're driving, how many million sensors is your brain using? It doesn't need millions, it just needs to be better than human driver. Reaction time will always be better than driver.

  13. YOUTUBE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And Google didn't know Youtube was violating copyrights when it would upload illegal content to expand their audience..

  14. Typo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google. Not Alphabet. Google. Google owns Alphabet, not the other way around.

  15. Yep, destroying evidence is the Democrat/Republic. by TimSSG · · Score: 1
    Yep, destroying evidence is the Democrat/Republican thing to do. Tim S.

    > 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...