Google Tries to Run Uber Off the Road--in Court

The race to build the first fleet of robot cars is heating up, but today it's brainiac lawyers--not brainiac engineers--toiling in the pit. On Friday in a San Francisco district court, attorneys for Google self-driving car spinoff Waymo filed for a preliminary injunction against Uber. The Googlers' message: You stole our tech, and now we will eat your face. Waymo initially filed its bombshell complaint against Uber last month, alleging that former Googler Anthony Levandowski made off with 14,000 confidential documents and trade secrets before founding his own company, Otto--a startup that Uber acquired for a reported $680 million just six months later. And now the design for Uber's lidar, a crucial sensor that helps self-driving cars "see" around them, looks a lot like Waymo's, the suit alleges.