Google-Uber fight is heading to trial

SAN FRANCISCO — A Google-bred pioneer in selfdriving cars and Uber’s beleaguered ride-hailing service are colliding in a courtroom showdown revolving around allegations of deceit, betrayal, espionage and a high-tech heist that tore apart one-time allies.

The trial — the biggest legal battle of the fledgling automated driving era — opening Monday in San Francisco federal court comes nearly a year after Google spin-off Waymo sued Uber, accusing it of ripping off key pieces of its self-driving car technology in 2016. Multibillion dollar ride-sharing platform Uber paid $680 million for a startup run by Anthony Levandowski, one of the top engineers in a robotic vehicle project that Google began in 2009 and later spun out into Waymo.

In the case that stands out in part for the size of the companies involved (collectively, Uber and Waymo are worth more than $100 billion), jurors will be presented with a seismic question: Was Uber behaving like any other tech company when it hired a standout engineer who had formerly led Google’s self-driving car team before it spun off into Waymo? Or was the company engaged in a nefarious conspiracy involving multiple people to steal years of hard-earned secrets?

Uber has vehemently denied the allegations in the civil case, which has also triggered a criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. It’s unclear if the probe is focused on Uber or Mr. Levandowski, who has consistently exercised his right against selfincrimination and is expected to do so again if called to testify during the trial.

The stakes in the trial are huge. Waymo is demanding damages that its expert estimated at nearly $2 billion. It also wants a court order that would prevent Uber from using any of the technology that it says was stolen, a move that could hobble the ride-hailing service’s push to design self-driving cars.