The trial that could determine the fate of Uber’s autonomous driving program is finally underway in a crowded courtroom in San Francisco. For the past year, lawyers for Waymo (the self-driving car unit spun out from Alphabet in December 2016) and ride-hailing juggernaut Uber have been sparring in court over evidence and witnesses and proceedings.
At the center of the lawsuit is an acquisition that Uber made in 2016 of a self-driving company called Otto, picking up that company’s brilliant but troubled chief executive, Anthony Levandowski. Formerly known as Ottomotto, Otto was created by Levandowski, who was one of the founding fathers of autonomous vehicle technologies.
Waymo’s chief lawyer, Charles Verhoeven, painted a picture of Uber as a company whose chief executive realized that the race to develop autonomous vehicles would define the future prospects of the company - and that future was looking increasingly grim. In opening arguments, Waymo argued that Uber’s ousted chief executive, Travis Kalanick, wanted to find ‘cheat codes’.
Uber’s lawyers are arguing that the actions of the company were just natural Silicon Valley competition. The defense strategy already on display in jury selection according to a consultant on jury composition who observed the proceedings from a spillover gallery was that Uber was challenging jurors who were emotional about issues, while Waymo was challenging potential jury members who were too technically savvy.
The one man at the center of this legal battle and its potential billions of dollars in damages will likely be silent, as he pleaded the Fifth Amendment rights in Waymo’s lawsuit. Indeed, perhaps never in a courtroom has so much been said about a man who will say so little.
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