In February 2016, Mr. Levandowski left to start his own self-driving truck company, Otto. He sold it to Uber for $680 million six months later.
.. Mr. Droz said this did not surprise him because Mr. Levandowski had told him earlier that he wanted to start a self-driving car company and that Uber would be interested in “buying the team” responsible for the lidar being developed at Google.
.. Mr. Droz also said Mr. Levandowski, after being spotted at Uber headquarters while still working at Google, admitted to him that he had met with the ride-hailing service because he was looking for investors for his new company. Mr. Droz joined Google when it acquired 510 Systems in 2011, a self-driving car start-up he founded with Mr. Levandowski.
The tech behind Google-Uber legal beef could be ready to boom
The tech behind Google-Uber legal beef could be ready to boom
.. Waymo alleges that six weeks before resigning, Levandowski copied 14,000 confidential files and trade secrets from his company-issued laptop. Among those files were designs for Google’s custom-designed Lidar system, the technology that gives autonomous vehicles their vision... Waymo learned of the alleged theft when a Lidar component supplier inadvertently attached machine drawings of what was said to be Uber’s Lidar circuit board in an email, a design it said is strikingly similar to Waymo’s own unique design... Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk is not a fan, and his aversion to Lidar brings up some questions about how widespread its use will be. He believes radar-based visual systems are better, and is focusing on those for Tesla’s self-driving automobiles. Unlike radar, Lidar cannot penetrate fog, heavy rain, or snow, but radar has its own issues, including difficulty detecting non-moving objects and certain materials such as metallic objects... Rasgon believes that radar in conjunction with cameras may become more widely used than Lidar.“Radar is easier, cheaper, more ubiquitous,” he said in an interview. “Ideally, you would want to use the cheapest solution that you can…The performance is very good in Lidar, but if you can get by with cameras and radar, that is probably the best way to go.”.. Google’s Waymo said in the lawsuit that by designing its Lidar systems itself, it has already driven down the costs; its Lidar systems are now less than 10% of the cost of Lidar systems just a few years ago.
Uber’s Clash With Regulators Moves to Self-Driving Cars
Skirmish sets stage for first major test of nascent autonomous-driving laws
Since last Wednesday, Uber has defiantly offered rides to San Francisco customers in a handful of autonomous vehicles despite opposition from California regulators who demand the company get a state permit or pull the autos off the road.
Uber has long clashed with authorities over decades-old taxi laws, but its latest salvo could ultimately have greater repercussions for the company.
.. Other companies like Alphabet Inc.’s Google have spoken out against the patchwork of state and federal laws, but none have so brazenly defied regulators as Uber has done this past week on San Francisco’s streets.
.. An Uber executive fired back on Friday, saying the company wouldn’t apply for California’s autonomous-driving permit because its robot cars must be manned by humans, rendering them less than fully autonomous.
.. If Uber was trying to make a statement, the gambit worked. The standoff highlights Uber’s conviction that laws should be adapted to fit its business model and not the other way around, say people familiar with the company’s thinking.
.. The stakes are potentially greater for Uber with self-driving vehicles because CEO Travis Kalanick ultimately sees them replacing its 1.5 million drivers to ferry commuters, food and packages. Drivers now keep up to 75% of fares.
Apple Drops Hints About Working on Self-Driving Cars
In letter to U.S. transportation regulators, Apple said it is investing heavily in machine learning and automation
Apple “is investing heavily in the study of machine learning and automation, and is excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation.”
.. Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving project had already collected more than 2 million miles of public-roadway testing and General Motors Co. this year competed a $1 billion deal to acquire Cruise Automation to jump start its autonomous vehicle program.