A former employee stole trade secrets from Google's self-driving car project and brought them to a startup that was later acquired by Uber, according to a complaint filed in federal court on Thursday. The email, which apparently was referring to Uber's own Lidar design, confirmed Waymo's earlier suspicions that Levandowski had given Waymo's trade secrets to Uber, which acquired Otto in August 2016. Waymo investigated the matter further, and said it discovered that additional former employees—now working at Otto and Uber—also downloaded confidential Lidar information. "Our parent company Alphabet has long worked with Uber in many areas, and we didn't make this decision lightly," Waymo said in a statement regarding its lawsuit. An Uber spokesperson told PCMag that "we take the allegations made against Otto and Uber employees seriously and we will review this matter carefully."

Source: Fox News February 24, 2017 14:26 UTC