Google spinoff, Uber whale on each other as trial opens
SAN FRANCISCO — An epic court battle between Uber and a Google spinoff, centred on the alleged theft of self-driving car technology, began with accusations of sinister plots and other devious behaviour lobbed in both directions.
In opening arguments Monday, lawyers for Google’s former autonomous car unit Waymo likened Uber to Rosie Ruiz, one of the most notorious cheaters in sports history. Waymo is seeking to prove that Uber bolstered its self-driving car program using technology stolen by Anthony Levandowski, a former star engineer at Google.
“Losing was not an option,” Waymo attorney Charles Verhoeven said of Uber in his opening statement. “They would do anything they needed to do, no matter what.”
In turn, Uber’s lawyer William Carmody charged that Waymo filed a bogus suit filled with trumped-up claims just to thwart its rival. Carmody said there’s no evidence that Uber relied on any of Waymo’s technology, although he acknowledged that Levandowski may have acted improperly before he left Google to run his own startup in January 2016.