Uber and Waymo’s nasty legal dispute has taken a strange turn, as the release of a series of text messages between former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and his star self-driving-car engineer, Anthony Levandowski, charts the blossoming of a close connection between the two.
For those unfamiliar, Waymo has alleged that Levandowski stole secrets related to its lidar system and brought them with him to Uber. The lawsuit has become a blockbuster, because depending on the ruling, it could severely damage Uber’s plans—which have already taken several hits—to roll out self-driving taxis across its massive ride-hailing network. As part of the suit, Waymo thought texts between the two might shed light on whether Kalanick, and by extension Uber, was indeed after the trade secrets.
It offers up some interesting gems, including the fact that Levandowski and Kalanick both paid a lot of attention to Tesla:
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