Waymo and the Rise of the Robotaxis | Driving Too Fast
1/21/202643 min
When the demands of war ignite a race to build autonomous cars, Google invests billions in the hope of owning the driverless future of transportation. But can it really turn this technological challenge into a viable business?
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First 90 secondsDavid Brown· Host0:00
[upbeat music] It's February twenty eighteen, and the federal courthouse in San Francisco is bracing for one of the biggest tech showdowns of the decade. In just a few hours, Waymo and Uber will square off in a trial that threatens to expose the deepest secrets of Silicon Valley's self-driving revolution. Reporters crowd the hallway, clutching notepads and camera gear. Lawyers from both companies move briskly through security, carrying boxes stuffed with exhibits and confidential filings. And there is one person everyone is waiting to hear from today: Anthony Levandowski. Once one of Google's brightest robotic stars, he's the reason for this legal showdown. Waymo, Google's self-driving car division, is accusing Uber of orchestrating a calculated theft of its trade secrets, a heist worth, in Waymo's view, one point eight billion dollars. The allegations are explosive. Waymo says Levandowski stole around fourteen thousand proprietary files, nearly ten gigabytes of designs and engineering documents, before leaving Google in early twenty sixteen and joining Uber soon after. Waymo discovered the theft almost by accident. In December