Googles Arm for Self Driving Cars Is Accusing a Former Engineer of Stealing Trade Secrets for Uber

Google is suing Uber and alleging that a former employee engaged in a “concerted plan” to steal trade secrets related to the search giant’s self-driving car technology.

In a blog post Thursday, Google’s self-driving car subsidiary, Waymo, said that a former top executive who later went to work for Uber illegally downloaded troves of proprietary data onto an external hard drive before taking the information to his new employer.

“Six weeks before his resignation this former employee, Anthony Levandowski, downloaded over 14,000 highly confidential and proprietary design files for Waymo’s various hardware systems, including designs of Waymo’s LiDAR and circuit board,” said Google, referring to the laser-imaging system that helps self-driving cars to “see.”

Waymo went on to say that Levandowski pulled down nearly 10 GB of “trade secrets, including blueprints, design files and testing documentation” to an external hard drive before wiping his laptop’s hard drive in an effort to cover his tracks.