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TECHNOLOGY Tuesday 11 april 2017

Uber fires back at Google spinoff in self-driving car case

BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE portation, reduce traffic
AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER deaths and launch a huge
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- new industry.
Uber is scoffing at claims LASER FOCUS
that its expansion into Waymo filed suit against
self-driving cars hinges on Uber in February, claiming
trade secrets stolen from that a former manager, An-
a Google spinoff, arguing thony Levandowski, stole its
that its ride-hailing service patented ideas. After the
has been working on po- alleged theft, Levandowski
tentially superior technol- left Google early last year
ogy. to found a self-driving car
The legal defense, pre- startup called Otto that
sented in documents filed Uber bought for $680 mil-
Friday in San Francisco fed- lionlast August.
eral court, marks Uber’s first The dispute centers on a
detailed response to explo- pivotal part of self-driving
sive allegations that its self- cars called LiDAR, an array
driving cars rely on crucial of laser-based sensors that
technology designed by enable self-driving cars to
Waymo. That company see what’s around them so
was created from an au- they can safely navigate
tonomous-vehicle project roads. In this Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, the Waymo driverless car is displayed during a Google
started at Google eight In sworn declarations and event, in San Francisco.
years ago. diagrams, Uber argued Associated Press
Once a Google ally, Uber that its engineers are work- ent team, using a different confidential business plans Levandowski helped es-
emerged as a rival in the ing on a more sophisticat- beam pattern, and lever- and secret technology. tablish Google as an early
self-driving car market in ed form of LiDAR than Way- aging different know-how.” Uber may have its work cut leader in self-driving cars,
early 2015 when it began mo’s. Among other things, WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE out to sway Alsup, who has earning him more than
developing its own fleet of Uber says its LiDAR uses four What’s more, Uber says its said in previous court hear- $120 million in incentive
autonomous vehicles. lenses for transmitting and custom-designed LiDAR ings that Waymo has pre- pay, according to informa-
Now, Waymo is trying to receiving laser lights as op- system hasn’t even been sented some of the stron- tion inadvertently revealed
thwart that effort by per- posed to the single lens in installed on the self-driving gest evidence he has seen in court papers earlier this
suading U.S. District Judge Waymo’s version. cars that it has been testing in his judicial career. A hear- week.
William Alsup to block “Waymo could not be in Pittsburgh, Arizona and ing on Waymo’s request for Before Levandowski de-
Uber’s self-car driving ex- more wrong, and Uber’s San Francisco. Instead, the an injunction against Uber fected from Google early
pansion on the grounds design could not be more company says it has been is scheduled for May 3. last year start Otto, Waymo
that it hinges on a high- different,” Uber’s lawyers relying on LiDAR systems Although Waymo isn’t su- alleges he downloaded
tech heist. The case’s out- wrote in their rebuttal to built by other vendors. ing him in this case, Levan- more than 14,000 docu-
come could alter the race the allegations. “And no Much of the information dowski will play a central ments containing trade
to build self-driving cars wonder - Uber’s LiDAR was contained in Friday’s filing role in how the lawsuit un- secrets that is now helping
that may transform trans- developed by a differ- was redacted to protect folds. Uber. q

Symantec says CIA tools found across 16 countries

RAPHAEL SATTER mantec Corp. said the or organizations involved. account of how the tools assessment, pinning the
AP Cybersecurity Writer tools in WikiLeaks’ recent “I will say, in terms of the had been taken from the tools on a specific govern-
LONDON (AP) — The CIA’s releases have been linked regions, the largest region CIA’s Center for Cyber In- ment agency was “straying
cyberespionage toolkit to the electronic infiltration represented in terms of telligence. outside our area of exper-
made public by WikiLeaks of international, financial, those targets was the Mid- The U.S. government has tise.”
has been linked to 40 spy- energy and aerospace dle East,” O’Brien said in a since all but publicly ac- Intriguingly, O’Brien said
ing operations in 16 coun- organizations across the telephone interview. cepted the embarrass- one CIA tool was discov-
tries, an early public assess- world. Like many security The word “CIA” was men- ing claim; about a week ered breaking into an U.S.
ment of the intelligence firms, Symantec draws on tioned nowhere in Syman- later, President Donald computer — only to unin-
agency’s global hacking data supplied by its clients. tec’s post, but few if any Trump told a television host: stall itself almost immedi-
operations, computer se- Researcher Dick O’Brien doubt that that’s where “I just want people to know ately afterward.
curity company Symantec declined to provide fur- the tools come from. When the CIA was hacked, and a “That, to us, smacks of an
said Monday. ther details, saying might WikiLeaks began releas- lot of things taken.” accidental compromise,”
In a blog post published , prompt speculation as to ing them in early March, it O’Brien said that while Sy- we said. “Our assessment is
the California-based Sy- the identity of the people gave an unusually explicit mantec didn’t dispute that it was likely a mistake.”q