In late 2016, San Francisco-based software engineer Anthony Levandowski got a new job when car-sharing service Uber acquired Otto, the autonomous trucking company that he had started less than a year earlier for a reported $680 million. Eventually, his technology found its way into Uber’s self-driving car project and Levandowski himself was named Uber’s vice president of engineering.
But there was a problem.
Soon after the acquisition, Levandowski’s former employer, Waymo, an Alphabet subsidiary, sued him, accusing the star engineer of stealing thousands of documents related to the company’s self-driving technology, including blueprints, testing documents and design files.
