Google Seeks Court Order To Stop Uber From Using 'Stolen' Tech In Self-Driving Car Race

Alphabet's Waymo, previously known as Google's self-driving car unit, is stepping up its legal attack on rival Uber Technologies, asking a court to block Uber from using Waymo technology against it in the race to develop self-driving cars. The request for a temporary injunction, filed Friday in a federal court in San Francisco, is part of an amended complaint against Uber and its Otto autonomous driving unit, which is accused of stealing Waymo trade secrets related to a crucial technology that lets driverless cars "see" what's around them. The Mountain View, California-based company's claims center on actions by Anthony Levandowski, a long-time member of Google's driverless car team who left to found Otto, a self-driving truck company, in 2016. Otto was acquired by Uber just a few months later for as much as $680 million. Waymo alleges that weeks before his departure from Waymo, Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 proprietary files from a Waymo server.