Google Self-Driving Car Unit Accuses Uber of Using Stolen Technology - The New York Times

Another busy week for Uber's PR and legal departments; tangentially, see Early Uber investors Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein say the company needs to change its ‘toxic’ culture patterns (Recode)

"In a federal court filing in San Francisco, Waymo said Anthony Levandowski, who runs Uber’s autonomous car division, downloaded 14,000 files from Google a month before leaving to start his own self-driving car company, Otto. Uber acquired Otto in August for $680 million, about seven months after Mr. Levandowski left Google.

“Otto and Uber have taken Waymo’s intellectual property so that they could avoid incurring the risk, time, and expense of independently developing their own technology,” the company said in the filing. “Ultimately, this calculated theft reportedly netted Otto employees over half a billion dollars and allowed Uber to revive a stalled program, all at Waymo’s expense.”"

Google Self-Driving Car Unit Accuses Uber of Using Stolen Technology - The New York Times