Alphabet accuses Uber of stealing self-driving car technology

Alphabet on Thursday filed a lawsuit accusing Uber and its self-driving vehicle unit Otto of stealing technology from Waymo, a subsidiary of the Google parent company.

“Otto and Uber have taken Waymo’s intellectual property so that they could avoid incurring the risk, time and expense of independently developing their own technology,” Waymo said in a San Francisco federal court filing. The suit contends that a Waymo manager took technical data with him when he left to launch a competing venture that went on to become Otto.

“We take the allegations made against Otto and Uber employees seriously and we will review this matter carefully,” an Uber spokeswoman said in an email reply to an AFP inquiry.

Waymo called for a trial, and urged the court to order Otto and Uber to stop using patented technology at issue in the case.

Waymo also wanted unspecified damages in what it described in court documents as “an action for trade secret misappropriation, patent infringement, and unfair competition.”

Waymo argued that a “calculated theft” of its technology netted Otto a buyout of more than US$500 million and enabled Uber to revive a stalled self-driving car programme.