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Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

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Re: Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

#181

Post by jonstewart »

mevile wrote: post #59
xt00 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea that's incredibly bad if that's what that guy did.. in general for EE designs, the schematic/layouts are not that hard to deduce how you would do it if you are in contact with the company that makes the LIDAR device (the unique and difficult part -- basically just need to ask them, like "yo, how roughly should I interface with this thing and whats your recommendation on a number of the components.. and can you gi…

It seems criminal. I remember an engineer from goldman sachs went to prison for doing something similar.

It's definitely criminal.

Re: Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

#182

Post by whorleater »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #163
fuzzythinker wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the info. Will know not leave my laptop behind in any interviews.

I've never felt the need to bring my own laptop to a job interview. If the company asked me to bring my own, I'd consider that strange or even suspicious.

It'd be really weird for them to request you to bring a laptop, but sometimes when a company flies you out for an onsite and your return flight is that night, your options are either 1) leave your laptop with the hotel as luggage (pretty bad) or 2) bring your laptop to the interview. There's no real reason for them to know you have your laptop with you however.

Re: Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

#184

Post by ma2rten »

selftemp wrote: post #165

Copy-pasting from my comment on Reddit. The first thing that caught my attention after reading the whole lawsuit! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7dzPLynxaXuQjY3dkllZ2ZKb0k... [Item 42- 49] itself is some of the timings regarding Otto's inception and Uber's acquisition. Timeline: * Levandowski first registered the domain for his then(now Otto) company on Nov'15 * The suit says on 3rd of Dec'15 he searched for the L…

It could also be that Levandowski met with Uber execs as the lawsuit claims, but didn't tell them he had stolen the documents.

Re: Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

#185

Post by aisofteng »

imranq wrote: post #142
w00tw00tw00t wrote: post #69

I had an interview there where the manager asked me to leave my laptop behind and go for a walk. I was hesitant after hearing stories of Uber conducting electronic espionage against its competitors. They could easily bypass Macbook security with a USB device (I had heard of that on HN too) so I was very nervous to leave my laptop behind and noted its exact orientation and position on the table. Sure enough when I ret…

1. Why bring your own laptop to an interview? 2. Isn't this scenario incredibly suspicious?

I have been asked to bring my laptop to a interview so that I could could in a development environment I am already comfortable with. I not only found it reasonable but also appreciated it.

Re: Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

#186

Post by jonstewart »

tajen wrote: post #37
chollida1 wrote: post #4

From another source to provide some colour: > According to a lawsuit filed today in federal court in California, Waymo accuses Anthony Levandowski, an engineer who left Google to found Otto and now serves as a top ranking Uber executive, stole 14,000 highly confidential documents from Google before departing to start his own company. Among the documents were schematics of a circuit board and details about radar and L…

How does Google build such forsenics? Do they have spyware monitoring all their company laptops?

Yes! It's open source: https://github.com/google/grr

Google probably has the largest team of internal forensics software developers.

Re: Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

#187

Post by throwaway23190 »

makomk wrote: post #81
tyingq wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have doubts what was stolen was actually any of the secret sauce. An interface board for a lidar unit is probably one of the most simple things on the list. The actual self driving software, and more importantly, all of the collected data from the waymo fleet would have been the key.

Not so much an interface board as a whole new tested design for a LIDAR unit, including a unique patented optics setup and laser driver circuit, according to the complaint. Also testing, manufacturing, and characterization procedures and results and information on suppliers for the parts required. The PCB was just the component whose accidental disclosure lead them to conclude that Uber and Otto were using the stolen…

Frankly, I wish this "patented" (does that word mean anything at all these days ?) tech gets into China, and gives all us hackers cheap Lidars to play with.

Re: Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

#188

Post by QuercusMax »

giis wrote: post #97

Interesting questions for google employees: Does Google force you to use specific version of OS? Do they have pre-installed software? Is it not-okay to format and install any OS you want? I work in startups, they provide only laptops and doesnt care about OS or software. There is no mandatory software requirement from company side.

For eng workstations, virtually all are Goobuntu unless you have a reallllly good reason (e.g. CAD software for mech e's, or work on Windows Chrome).

For laptops, they're essentially just used as a dumb web terminal + ssh. You can get mac, goobuntu, or maybe even Windows. Since you aren't allowed to have source code on laptops (except certain special exceptions), it's not as big of a concern.

Re: Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

#189

Post by w00tw00tw00t »

AlexCoventry wrote: post #139
w00tw00tw00t wrote: post #69

I had an interview there where the manager asked me to leave my laptop behind and go for a walk. I was hesitant after hearing stories of Uber conducting electronic espionage against its competitors. They could easily bypass Macbook security with a USB device (I had heard of that on HN too) so I was very nervous to leave my laptop behind and noted its exact orientation and position on the table. Sure enough when I ret…

Did you check the logs to see whether it had been opened in the meantime?

No, how do you do that?

Re: Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

#190

Post by throwaway23190 »

CardenB wrote: post #126
jplayer01 wrote: post #12

I always was incredibly surprised at how quickly Uber had working self-driving cars (with the required, highly specialized hardware). Guess this explains it.

Uber launched their beta in Pittsburgh just before Otto acquisition. This doesn't explain it. It explains how they quickly wanted to build their own lidar.

Oh come on. CMU had its own DARPA contenders, and where on earth is this grand institution you ask ? "Pittsburgh" !
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