Corporate Espionage: Former Google Employee Indicted on Stealing Trade Secrets
Anthony Levandowski was a Silicon Valley superstar. Now he’s facing up to ten years in federal prison.
The indictment reads like a spy novel.
A former Google employee is accused of stealing 14,000 files related to Google’s self-driving technology and using the information to start his own self-driving truck company which he later sold to Uber.
On Tuesday, August 27, Anthony Levandowski was indicted on 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets from Google.
John Bennett, the F.B.I. agent over the San Francisco division gave a press conference regarding the indictment:
“The Bay Area has the best and brightest engineers, and they take big risks. But Silicon Valley is not the Wild West. The fast-paced and competitive environment does not mean federal laws do not apply.”
The entire ordeal reminds me of Michael Crichton’s, corporate espionage thriller Disclosure minus all the sex. Here is how the whole debacle unfolded.
Time at Google
Anthony Levandowski had been an engineering wunderkind since his time at UC Berkley. While there he created a self-driving motorcycle that was entered into the Pentagon’s first-ever competition for self-driving technology.
His success led to a job at Google, where he worked in their top-secret Google- X division and pioneered their self-driving technology that was later spun off into the company Waymo.
Leaving Google to Start His Own Company
In 2016 Levandowski left Google to start his own self-driving company, Otto.
The move put him on Uber’s radar who quickly bought Otto for $700 million dollars and hired Levandowski to head up their autonomous car efforts.
Acquiring Levandowski’s company and hiring him to head up their self-driving efforts was a no-brainer. Uber’s entire business model is built on destroying the taxi industry and eventually replacing all of their human drivers with automated vehicles.
It was a match made in corporate heaven.
When the Trouble Began
In February 2017 Waymo accused Uber, Anthony Levandowski, and others of stealing their self-driving technology. Once it was clear that the accusations were heeded to trial, Uber fired Levandowski in May 2017.
The files in questions involve Waymo’s LIDAR tech. LIDAR is what allows Waymo’s vehicles to identify objects and avoid hitting them; obviously an important aspect of having any successful self-driving company.
In February 2018 the case went to trial, but within four days a settlement was reached between the companies. Uber agreed to give Alphabet (Google’s parent company) 0.34 percent of their stock — a settlement then valued at $245 million.
The agreement with Waymo didn’t solve Levandowski problems, however, and the door was left open to bring criminal charges against the engineer, which culminated in Tuesday’s indictment.
What’s at Stake
Self-driving vehicles are Silicon Valley’s holy grail. All of the major tech giants (Google, Apple, Amazon, Uber, and Lyft) are in a race to bring self-driving cars to the masses.
Uber and Lyft’s entire business model and their road to profitability involve replacing their fleet of humans with self-driving vehicles. With Uber’s recent abysmal earnings report, one must think that they want self-driving technology refined and ready to go sooner than later.
The company first to market with self-driving vehicles is the one who is going to reap the majority of the benefits. Autonomous cars will completely disrupt the transportation industry as we know it. With such high stakes, there is no surprise these companies will go to great lengths to one-up their competitors.
If the indictment against Anthony Levandowski is to be believed that desire to be the first to market led to some good old fashion corporate espionage.
Outside of the initial case with Waymo, Uber nor anyone else affiliated with the company has been indicted on criminal charges.
If convicted, Levandowski is looking at up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 dollar fine for every count and additional restitution.
