Waymo, Alphabet's autonomous driving wing, is taking Uber to court over allegations that former employee Anthony Levandowski stole trade secrets when he joined Uber. Aarian Marshall, staff writer for Wired Transportation, is covering the case.
Marshall says the case comes down to whether Levandowski stole trade secrets or whether Uber figured it out independently. Marshall explains it won't be good enough for Waymo just to prove that information was stolen. The company will have to be able to prove that what Levandowski took was actually a trade secret, instead of something any reasonable self-driving car engineer might figure out on their own.
Marshall says Waymo is currently winning the autonomous car race. If Waymo receives a favorable outcome in the case, it could prove debilitating for Uber.
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