Waymo CEO John Krafcik shows his wallet has he arrives at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse for the start of the Waymo vs Uber trial in San Francisco. AFP/JOSH EDELSON
Waymo CEO John Krafcik shows his wallet has he arrives at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse for the start of the Waymo vs Uber trial in San Francisco. AFP/JOSH EDELSON
Waymo CEO John Krafcik shows his wallet has he arrives at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse for the start of the Waymo vs Uber trial in San Francisco. AFP/JOSH EDELSON
Waymo CEO John Krafcik shows his wallet has he arrives at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse for the start of the Waymo vs Uber trial in San Francisco. AFP/JOSH EDELSON

Uber-Waymo trial starts with claims of cheating and conspiracy theories


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Uber was either a cheating competitor willing to break the law to win the race to develop self-driving cars, or the victim of an unproven conspiracy theory stitched together by its main rival, Waymo, jurors heard in opening statements of a trade secrets trial on Monday.

The first salvos were delivered to a 10-person jury in San Francisco federal court in a civil lawsuit that could help determine who emerges in the forefront of the autonomous car business nearly a year after Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google’s parent company Alphabet, sued rival Uber Technologies.

The case hinges on whether ride-hailing company Uber used apparent trade secrets to advance its autonomous vehicle program. Waymo's allegation is that its former engineer Anthony Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 confidential files in December 2015 containing designs for autonomous vehicles before going to work for Uber and leading its self-driving car unit in 2016.

“Waymo wants you to believe that Anthony Levandowski got together with Uber as part of some grand conspiracy to cheat and take trade secrets,” Uber attorney Bill Carmody said in his opening statement to the jury. “But like most conspiracy stories it just doesn’t make sense when you get the whole story.”

Uber and Waymo are part of a crowded field of automakers and technology companies competing to build fleets of self-driving cars that could transform urban transportation systems.

Waymo attorney Charles Verhoeven told the jury that the competitive pressures were so great to develop the cars that the then-CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, decided that "winning was more important than obeying the law".

“We’re bringing this case because Uber is cheating. They took our technology ... to win this race at all costs,” Mr Verhoeven said.

Waymo has estimated damages in the case at about $1.9 billion. Uber rejects the financial damages claim.

Uber attorney Mr Carmody said the “elephant in the courtroom” was that, despite the downloads by Mr Levandowski, Google’s proprietary information never made it to Uber and into its self-driving technology.

“There is no connection whatsoever between any files he downloaded ... and what’s in here,” Mr Carmody said, pointing to an Uber-designed Lidar sensor sitting in front of him, a light-based sensor that is crucial to autonomous driving and central to the case.

“There’s not a single piece of Google proprietary information at Uber,” he added. “Nothing, zero, period.”

After what is expected to be two weeks of testimony, the jury will have to decide whether the eight apparent trade secrets were indeed such, and not common knowledge, and whether Uber improperly acquired them, used them and benefited from them.

Mr Levandowski, regarded as a visionary in autonomous technology, is not a defendant in the case but is on Waymo’s witness list. He was fired from Uber in May 2017 because the company said he refused to co-operate with Uber in the Waymo lawsuit and did not hand over information requested of him in the case.

Waymo sought to put a reassuring face on the company's self-driving efforts, calling as its first witness chief executive John Krafcik, who described for the jury the first car he bought, his two children and how he found Waymo's mission to reduce driving fatalities "inspiring".

Asked why Waymo sued Uber, Mr Krafcik responded: “We believe in fair competition.

“We believe in accelerating the technology that is going to save a lot of lives in this world. What we came to find is aspects of our technology were taken from us in an unfair fashion and it was important for us to correct that.”

Under cross-examination, however, Mr Carmody tried to show that, rather than leading the pack in autonomous driving, behind the scenes Waymo was struggling to keep talent, citing emails between Waymo executives expressing concerns about the exodus of top engineers for rivals.

Mr Carmody showed the jury an email sent by Mr Levandowski to Google co-founder Larry Page in January 2016, a few weeks after downloading the documents. “Chauffeur is broken. We are losing our tech advantage fast,” Mr Levandowski wrote, referring to a previous name of the project.

Uber has co-founder and former CEO Mr Kalanick at the top of its witness list. There are almost 100 potential witnesses between the two companies, according to court documents, including Google co-founders Mr Page and Sergey Brin, Benchmark venture capitalist and Uber investor Bill Gurley and Alphabet executive David Drummond.

Waymo lawyer Mr Verhoeven, ending the day, walked Mr Krafcik through the list of departed engineers who went to form their own companies or join others, asking him whether Waymo had sued them after their departure.

"We did not," the chief executive replied.

Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home. 

The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

Profile

Company: Justmop.com

Date started: December 2015

Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan

Sector: Technology and home services

Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai

Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month

Funding:  The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups. 

Jetour T1 specs

Engine: 2-litre turbocharged

Power: 254hp

Torque: 390Nm

Price: From Dh126,000

Available: Now

Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode

Directors: Raj & DK

Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon

Rating: 4/5

Where can I submit a sample?

Volunteers can now submit DNA samples at a number of centres across Abu Dhabi. The programme is open to all ages.

Collection centres in Abu Dhabi include:

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  • Biogenix Labs in Masdar City
  • Al Towayya in Al Ain
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  • NMC Royal Medical Centre - Abu Dhabi
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The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi

Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe

For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.

Golden Dallah

For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.

Al Mrzab Restaurant

For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.

Al Derwaza

For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup. 

MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW

Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

Company%20profile%20
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While you're here
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

FFP EXPLAINED

What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.

What the rules dictate? 
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What are the penalties? 
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Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
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More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
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Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

Defence review at a glance

• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”

• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems

• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.

• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%

• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade

• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels

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Director: Jafar Panahi

Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr

Rating: 4/5

Jewel of the Expo 2020

252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome

13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas

550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome

724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses

Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa

Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site

The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants

Al Wasl means connection in Arabic

World’s largest 360-degree projection surface

Why seagrass matters
  • Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
  • Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
  • Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
  • Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
RESULT

Leeds United 1 Manchester City 1
Leeds:
 Rodrigo (59')
Man City: Sterling (17')

Man of the Match: Rodrigo Moreno (Leeds)

England World Cup squad

Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Lexus LX700h specs

Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor

Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm

Transmission: 10-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh590,000

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