Uber Feared It Fell Behind in Driverless-Car Technology, Kalanick Testifies

Ex-CEO is highlight of second day of trial in which Google’s parent alleges Uber stole trade secrets

.. Mr. Levandowski previously has indicated he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Mr. Kalanick has denied any theft in depositions.

.. Waymo attorney Charles Verhoeven showed December 2015 meeting notes from former Uber executive John Bares, then the head of the self-driving program, in which Mr. Kalanick appeared to be singularly focused on lidar, as well as intellectual property.

.. Mr. Bares said the company was burning through about $20 million a month trying to develop reliable autonomous vehicles. Relying on Mr. Levandowski’s assistance would help pare the costs by speeding up development

.. Kalanick’s goal of getting 100,000 driverless cars on the road by 2020

.. Autonomous vehicles are essential to Uber’s business, Mr. Bares said, given human drivers account for 70% to 80% of the cost of operating a vehicle in ride-hailing.

.. Still, he acknowledged Google was and remains the leader in self-driving vehicle technology. “That’s the general perception right now,” he said.

The Deep State Hiding in Plain Sight

Mike Lofgren, a congressional staff member for 28 years, joins Bill Moyers to talk about what he calls Washington’s “Deep State,” in which elected and unelected figures collude to protect and serve powerful vested interests. “It is how we had deregulation, financialization of the economy, the Wall Street bust, the erosion or our civil liberties and perpetual war,” Lofgren tells Moyers.

  •  Wall Street provides second careers for people like David Patreus who went to a Wall Street Buyout firm as a second career.
  • The vast majority of Generals seem to end up on the boards of the Military contractors.
  • Silicon Valley has become part of the Surveillance State, voluntarily.
  • What is the ideology: it is a form a corporatism, that steers clear of social issues, but the Washington Consensus
    • deregulation,
    • outsourcing,
    • deindustrialization,
    • financialization,
    • american exceptionalism-boots on the ground everywhere, perpetual war
  • Parts of the Deep State are fracturing
    • Silicon Valley is protesting the NSA
    • The Tea Party is protesting the Deep State