Battle Over Self-Driving Cars Goes To Court In Case Between Google's Waymo And Uber

Waymo alleges that, in early 2016, Anthony Levandowski downloaded 14,000 files related to autonomous vehicle design before leaving to found his own self-driving truck startup with several Google engineers. Waymo alleges that, in early 2016, Anthony Levandowski downloaded 14,000 files related to autonomous vehicle design before leaving to found his own self-driving truck startup with several Google engineers. It involves two of the biggest names in Silicon Valley -- Uber and Google's subsidiary Waymo. At issue is whether Uber stole valuable intellectual property when it hired Waymo's star engineer, Anthony Levandowski. Google has pursued autonomous vehicle technology for almost as long as Uber has existed. It founded Waymo in late 2016 to continue its research into self-driving cars and the software that powers them.