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Waymo Claims Ex-Employee Stole Sensor Tech for Self-Driving Cars
Waymo, the new name for Google Inc.’s autonomous car program, claims a former employee stole details about the company's laser sensors and used them to help launch his own self-driving-tech company.
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Waymo, the new name for Google Inc.’s autonomous car program, claims a former employee stole details about the company's laser sensors and used them to help launch his own self-driving-tech company.
A lawsuit filed in a California federal court asserts that Anthony Levandowski downloaded 14,000 files concerning Waymo’s lidar sensor technology, a key technology that enables robotic cars to "see" around them, before resigning in January 2016.
Levandowski and other former senior managers from Google then launched Otto, a company that developed a retrofit self-driving system for commercial trucks. Otto was acquired by ride-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc. last August.
The lawsuit, which lists Uber and Otto as defendants, says Waymo became aware of the theft when it accidentally received an email showing the design for an Uber lidar circuit board that was almost identical to the one Waymo had designed.
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