Beijing time on February 24th news, according to the "Fortune" online version of the report, as a technology company to participate in the auto-driving market two representative enterprises, Google's Waymo and Uber tore the face today, Waymo will Uber and its subsidiary Otto They went to court and said they infringed their own patents and were suspected of stealing trade secrets.
Otto is a company specializing in self-driving trucks. It has succeeded in letting a heavy truck carry tens of thousands of cans of beer to the high-speed unmanned crossing. The company's founder Lewandowski was from Google, and in August 2016, Uber spent $680 million to get Otto in the bag.
In the complaint, Waymo said that Otto and Uber have stolen key parts of Waymo's autonomous driving technology, especially light detection and ranging radar technology (LiDAR). Among them, the latter is a key technology in the autonomous driving industry. With LiDAR, autonomous vehicles can use lasers to generate accurate 3D maps around the vehicle.
It is reported that Waymo has a number of allegations against Lewandowski. Waymo claimed that the former Google employee secretly downloaded 14,000 highly confidential patent documents before leaving the company, including Waymo. LiDAR board design drawings, supplier list, LiDAR manufacturing details and other technical information.
"These key technologies have allowed Otto to sell $680 million, and Uber has also made rapid progress in autonomous driving, but Waymo has become a victim," Waymo wrote.
A Uber spokesperson said they are very concerned about Waymo's lawsuit and will review the matter carefully.
When the Google Autopilot project was just getting started, they used LiDAR from Velodyne, but then Google engineers developed their own mid-range LiDAR. Recently, Waymo's engineering team has made up for the shortcomings and developed the short-distance and long-range LiDAR. The three LiDARs covering all distances have become the killer of Waymo.
However, the most exciting part of this lawsuit is how Waymo found Otto stealing secrets. It is reported that Waymo accidentally discovered this "sudden secret" when copying the LiDAR supplier mail. This email contains a drawing of the Uber LiDAR circuit board. Waymo said the design was very similar to their patented design and violated the company's trade secrets.
Through this email, Waymo found that Uber and Otto are building their own LiDAR components, even the entire LiDAR system. However, the technology they use infringes on many Waymo patents.
After Lewandowski left, Google had 15 engineers who chose to resign to join Otto. (Compile / Lu Jiahui)
Jinhu Weibao Trading Co., Ltd , https://www.weibaoe-cigarette.com