Uber Accused of Stealing Trade Secrets from Waymo in Groundbreaking Trial

SAN FRANCISCO — A technology tug of war is playing out in a San Francisco courtroom. The ride-sharing company Uber is accused of stealing trade secrets from Google’s self-driving car company, Waymo.

A chauffeur-driven SUV that delivered Uber’s co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick to federal court. Kalanick resigned as Uber CEO amid controversy last June, and is the star witness in a trial that could shape the self-driving car industry.

“This is Google against Uber for our futures,” said David Franklin, a trade secret attorney. “This is a case about domination of the future, [a] hugely important area of technology.”

Google, which has been developing self-driving vehicles since 2009, is claiming Uber stole trade secrets to advance driverless cars — secrets so sensitive they have been revealed only to the jury.

Kalanick built Uber into the dominant ride-sharing company while building his own reputation as a fierce and volatile competitor, even fighting with one of his own drivers, who recorded the confrontation. It’s an image Google’s attorneys accentuated, in a remarkable moment in court Wednesday, showing the jury a famous Michael Douglas speech from the movie “Wall Street.”

“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good,” Douglas’ character says in the film.

Greed, Google contends, led Kalanick to hire a former Google engineer Anthony Lewandowski, who stole Google’s self-driving trade secrets. But Uber says it has only used technology that is common knowledge.