Battle of the Bots: Uber and Waymo Gear Up for Driverless-Car Trial

The biggest Silicon Valley legal battle in years pits a highflying startup against a tech behemoth, in a case that has already yielded a year of drama and legal wrangling. Waymo's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges Uber ransacked the tech giant's driverless-car design secrets after paying about $680 million in 2016 to buy autonomous-truck company Otto, founded by a former star engineer at Google, Anthony Levandowski. Uber denies the allegations, though court filings indicate it knew before buying Otto that Mr. Levandowski had possession of sensitive Google files. The San Francisco startup has said it is using its own technology to create autonomous vehicles. Last May, it fired Mr. Levandowski in part due to what it said was his unwillingness to cooperate with its own investigation.