A former Google engineer was charged Tuesday with stealing closely guarded secrets that he later sold to Uber as the ride-hailing service scrambled to catch up in the high-stakes race to build robotic vehicles. The indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney's office in San Jose, California, is an offshoot of a lawsuit filed in 2017 by Waymo, a self-driving car pioneer spun off from Google. Uber agreed to pay Waymo $245 million to settle the case, but the federal judge overseeing the lawsuit made an unusual recommendation to open a criminal probe. Uber considered having self-driving technology crucial to survive. Anthony Levandowski, a pioneer in robotic vehicles, was charged with 33 counts of trade secrets theft.

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – A former Google engineer was charged Tuesday with stealing closely guarded secrets that he later sold to Uber as the ride-hailing service scrambled to catch up in the high-stakes race to build robotic vehicles. The indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney's office in San Jose, California, is an offshoot of a lawsuit filed in 2017 by Waymo, a self-driving car pioneer spun off from Google. Uber agreed to pay Waymo $245 million to settle the case, but the federal judge overseeing the lawsuit made an unusual recommendation to open a criminal probe. Uber considered having self-driving technology crucial to survive. Anthony Levandowski, a pioneer in robotic vehicles, was charged with 33 counts of trade secrets theft.

But they couldn't find any takers. In meetings with a prime parts supplier to the car makers and then with the senior leadership of a major auto company, the pair gave presentations on their vehicle's capabilities, the number of miles it had driven and the broad strokes of how their self-driving software saw the road. The reaction, they say, was utter disinterest--and dismay that they were experimenting on public roads rather than on a test track. "Self-driving technology didn't make sense to them," Mr. Urmson says. "And it seemed so far out of the playbook that it wasn't even addressable."

Silicon Valley likes to think it is an engine of progress, which in turn helps tech companies self-identify as standard-bearers of progressivism. And in many ways, Silicon Valley is progressive. Companies voiced opposition to President Trump's bigoted executive order barring transgender people from serving in the military, and they stood up against the Trump administration's Islamophobic travel ban. Many tech CEOs spoke out this month against the separation of families at the border. While long hours are de rigueur in Silicon Valley and the jobs are dominated by white males, many of these companies emphasize at least some progressive values in the workplace, hosting open forums for employees to discuss politics and internal dynamics, offering ample time off, and creating well-funded (if too frequently ineffective) diversity initiatives.

I stopped riding Uber long ago and switched to its rival Lyft. To try to win us back, Uber's new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently met me in his office -- and for an Uber ride around San Francisco. He didn't sell me on Uber's market dominance or its cost-conscious "express pool" option. He didn't bring up its flying cars (though they have new plans for that, too). He spoke with baited breath about … safety.

In the late 1950s, a weapons maker called the Martin Company received a contract to build the first Pershing missile. It was to be the most sophisticated mobile weapons system on earth: 5 tons of metal and precision technology designed to deliver a nuclear warhead from up to 460 miles away. Should it ever be used, there would be no margin for error. It had to be perfect. And the US Army wanted it delivered quickly.

'After more than a year of thorough planning, development and safety reviews, we transitioned most operations to having a single vehicle operator, without a second person to collect feedback for our engineers using a laptop in the passenger seat,' the company said in the statement. 'This transition happened slowly as we worked with our vehicle operators to make sure they were well-trained and felt comfortable with this new job. Arizona governor Doug Ducey suspended Uber's self-driving vehicle testing privileges on Monday in the wake of a pedestrian fatality in a Phoenix suburb last week. Mr Ducey said in a letter to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi that video footage showed the company's'unquestionable failure'. The crash raised concerns about the San Francisco-based company's ability to safely test its technology in Arizona, he warned.

Waymo is preparing to launch a ride-hailing service akin to Uber's, but with driverless cars. The self-driving carmaker spun out of Google was approved on Jan. 24 to operate as a transportation network company (TNC) in Arizona, the state department of transportation told Quartz. Waymo applied for the permit on Jan. 12. Its application, which was reviewed by Quartz, contained images of the autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans the company is testing in five US states. The application realizes a long-held fear of Uber's: that Waymo intends not just to build driverless cars, but to operate its own ride-hailing business.

Perfecting the technology is essential to Uber, as autonomous vehicles could pare significant costs by replacing some 2.5 million human drivers and give it an edge in the technological race to upend personal and even commercial transportation. Uber is among auto makers and tech giants pursuing fully driverless cars on the belief they will ultimately save lives and costs. It isn't yet clear whether Uber is at fault, but the accident puts Mr. Khosrowshahi in a difficult position. Like his predecessor, Travis Kalanick, he has publicly touted Uber's driverless-car program, saying it could one day eliminate the need for people to own cars. He has even trumpeted flying taxis as a viable business in as soon as five years to shuttle people around cities.

Alphabet's self-driving car unit settled its trade secrets dispute with the ride-hailing firm, Uber. As Fred Katayama reports, Uber promised not to use Waymo's technology in its autonomous vehicles. Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Building on day three of the trial between Waymo and Uber Technologies on February 7, 2018 in San Francisco. SAN FRANCISCO -- Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is back in business. The ride-hailing company co-founder, who was ousted by investors last year following a series of corporate scandals, said in a tweet Wednesday that he was launching a venture fund that would invest in both the non- and for-profit sectors. "Today I'm announcing the creation of a fund called 10100 (pronounced'ten-one-hundred'), home to my passions, ideas, investments and big bets," Kalanick wrote.