Highway robbery

6 March 2017 By Reynolds Holding

Silicon Valley broadly, and especially the former Google, thrived more by sharing than suing. A legal brawl between its Waymo outfit and the $70 bln ride-hailing service over driverless-car secrets may signal a sharp turn. Open cultures would fade far in the rearview mirror.

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Uber bought a small company in 2016 that specializes in sensor technology used in autonomous vehicles, giving the ride-hailing service a patent in the technology and possibly a defense against a trade-secrets theft lawsuit filed against it by rival Alphabet, Reuters reported on March 1.

The chief executive of little-known Tyto Lidar said in a May 2016 post on LinkedIn that the company had been sold, at the same time as he and three other executives joined Otto, according to their profiles on the online business network. Official U.S. patent data shows Otto acquired Tyto technology at the same time. Otto, a self-driving truck startup founded by former Alphabet employees, was bought by Uber in August.

Alphabet's autonomous-car unit Waymo sued Uber and Otto on Feb. 23, claiming that former employee Anthony Levandowski, who left Waymo to set up Otto, downloaded and stole more than 14,000 confidential files, including details on light detection and ranging sensor technology, known as Lidar, a crucial element in most self-driving car systems.

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