Well, the trade secrets didn’t just drive themselves, did they?,Friction ,ALPHABET,Google,uber,cloud computing,Friction
IN ANOTHER twist to ride-scaring firm Uber’s septimana horribilis, the company is being sued by Waymo, the self-driving car offshoot of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
The company is going after Uber’s opposite number subsidiary Otto, which the moral-relaxy-taxi cab firm bought last year for $700m.
Specifically, it levels claims that Waymo’s former boss Anthony Levandowski took trade secrets with him when he left to set up Otto and that this tech was now instrumental to the workings of Otto’s own vehicles.
Mr Levandowski is alleged to have downloaded 14,000 «highly confidential and proprietary design files» whilst at Google and that the actions were «part of a concerted plan to steal Waymo’s trade secrets and intellectual property».
But the allegations go further, and very publicly so: «To gain access to Waymo’s design server, Mr. Levandowski searched for and installed specialised software onto his company-issued laptop.
«Once inside, he downloaded 9.7 GB of Waymo’s highly confidential files and trade secrets, including blueprints, design files and testing documentation. Then he connected an external drive to the laptop. Mr Levandowski then wiped and reformatted the laptop in an attempt to erase forensic fingerprints.
