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Fury Road
Article

Fury Road

Did Uber Steal the Driverless Future from Google?

Max Chafkin and Mark Bergen
Bloomberg Businessweek , 2017
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Controversial
  • Background

Recommendation

Uber has faced myriad controversies, but none of them is as existential a threat to its future as a patent infringement lawsuit from Google. On the surface, Google’s claim that a former employee passed design documents for Google’s self-driving car technology to Uber may look like a clear-cut case of theft. But as Bloomberg Businessweek reporters Max Chafkin and Mark Bergen explain, the events that preceded the alleged knowledge transfer paint a much more nuanced picture of the dispute. getAbstract recommends Chafkin and Bergen’s report to automotive industry professionals, patent lawyers and anybody interested in the background of this headline-grabbing case. 

Take-Aways

  • Alphabet is suing Uber Technologies on behalf of Google’s self-driving car division for alleged patent infringement.
  • At the center of the dispute is Anthony Levandowski, a founding member of Google’s self-driving cars project.
  • While employed at Google, Levandowski worked on self-driving car technology on the side through companies he founded on his own.

About the Authors

Max Chafkin and Mark Bergen are writers at Bloomberg Businessweek. 

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