‘UBER CHEATED TO GET AHEAD’

Waymo claims Kalanick ‘made the decision that winning was more important than law’

TWO tech giants racing for a lead in autonomous driving clashed on Monday in court as former Google car unit Waymo’s lawyer argued that Uber’s boss deliberately chose “to cheat” to get a leg up.

The accusations flew in the opening day of a blockbuster tech sector trial in which Google parent Alphabet’s Waymo division is seeking at least US$1 billion (RM3.91 billion) over the theft of secrets from its self-driv- ing car programme.

In opening remarks before the jury, Waymo lawyer Charles Verhoeven maintained that Uber’s founder and former chief executive Travis Kalanick made the decision to use stolen trade secrets to enable the global ridesharing giant to move into autonomous driving.

“He made a decision and the decision was to cheat. He made the decision that winning was more important than the law,” said Verhoeven.

Uber has denied the allegations, which stem from a suit claiming that former Google car executive Anthony Levandowski took thousands of files before leaving the unit for a startup called Otto, which was later acquired by Uber.

Verhoeven said Kalanick realised his company was lagging in efforts to develop autonomous technology and decided to take a dishonest route.

Kalanick told his colleagues that “this is all about winning”, the lawyer argued, and that Uber knew it could not catch Waymo because the Google car unit was “ahead of the pack”.

Uber attorney Bill Carmody sought to downplay the accusations and said the evidence would prove “there’s no conspiracy”.

He said evidence would show Google and Waymo were failing to invest enough to keep the most talented staff, enabling Uber to hire them.

The Uber lawyer pointed to one email shown in court in which the former head of Google’s car unit complained that “we have stopped playing to win” and noting that Uber “is acquiring the people I suggested we hire 1.5 years ago”.