Google Waymo accuses Uber of stealing technology secrets in self-driving patent war

Waymo said that Uber and Otto used the lidar sensing technology stolen from it to accelerate the development of their own autonomous driving technology. In the lawsuit filed in the Northern District Court of California, Waymo pointed out that "Uber's lidar technology is in fact Waymo's lidar technology."

Otto has received a lot of attention since it was founded in May last year, mainly because one of its founders, Anthony Levandowski, was a senior executive in Google's self-driving project. Waymo pointed out in the lawsuit that Uber acquired Otto for $680 million in August last year.

Lidar technology, which uses light pulses reflected from objects to measure their distance, is an important part of the autonomous driving technology system. Previous systems were relatively expensive, but the system designed by Waymo can significantly reduce costs, making it Waymo's most valuable asset.

Waymo said in its complaint that it learned of the theft of patents and trade secrets when it copied an email from a supplier that included a design for an Uber lidar circuit board that was strikingly similar to Waymo's system.

Waymo pointed out that Levandowski left Google in June last year (in December last year, Google's autonomous driving department was independent as Waymo), and before leaving, he downloaded about 14,000 secret materials, including lidar circuit board designs. With the help of information stolen from Google, Uber and Otto were able to quickly develop their autonomous driving technology. Waymo also revealed that Levandowski tried to format his computer to remove his fingerprints. Waymo hopes to obtain a certain amount of compensation and hopes that the court will prohibit Uber from continuing to use its proprietary technology.

Waymo said its lidar technology system took years to develop, while the thieves developed a similar system in just nine months.

Uber said it takes Waymo's complaint seriously and will investigate the matter fully.

Last month, Tesla sued the former head of its Autopilot system, alleging that he tried to poach Tesla designers to reserve engineers for the company he and the former head of Google's self-driving project jointly founded, and that he stole Tesla's proprietary data.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.