Alphabet's Waymo raises stakes in self-driving race with Uber lawsuit

The road to develop self-driving cars might be paved with lawsuits. Waymo, a spin-off from Google's self-driving car initiative, is suing Uber for allegedly stealing its trade secrets. On Thursday, it filed a lawsuit against Uber and its startup Otto -- a self-driving trucking company -- claiming that the two companies were using stolen intellectual property from Waymo, an Alphabet subsidiary. The lawsuit underscores the fierce competition in the self-driving industry and how the battle might escalate. By lifting the technology, Uber has allegedly built its own comparable LiDAR system within nine months, when Waymo had been developing the tech for nearly seven years, the company alleged.