Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

danielcompton.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 542 posts

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#161

Post by mattmanser »

transfire wrote: post #144
Judgmentality wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's another comment from an HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12558078 "Otto was designed to be sold to Uber before it was created, there's a reason it was self-funded despite having nearly 100 employees by the time it was acquired. Anthony Levandowski met Travis Kalanick years ago and had been planning something like this for a while. It's basically an open secret."

But how do we know Google wasn't the one making that plan? I find it strange that Google paid Levandowski millions in bonuses after he quit abruptly and after they already knew he was starting a company with their IP.

The bonuses could have been historically earned?

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#162

Post by MaxfordAndSons »

booleanbetrayal wrote: post #4

I can't imagine what Lewandowski and Uber were thinking here. The timeline is just too constrained to even be taken seriously.

It's even more incredible given that the target of Uber's corporate espionage efforts... holds a 6% stake in Uber!

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#163

Post by memmcgee »

Animats wrote: post #133

Uber, in their usual rule-breaking way, may come out OK on this. Suppose everything in the complaint against Uber is proven true. Google/Alphabet/Waymo gets an injunction against Uber using their rotating LIDAR, a clunky technology that's on the way out. (The future of high-volume 3D LIDAR is either flash with a staring sensor or MEMS with chip-sized moving mirrors.) G/A/W gets paid a few billion dollars, but far les…

They seem to be fundraising awfully quick for a company that has plenty of cash on hand. They'd probably have to fund-raise again or go public to pay off the damages.

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#164

Post by ethbro »

thrill wrote: post #146
pthreads wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to know the whole story so bad. You should write a book. :-)

If only I could write as well as the screenplay for Dave Barry's "Big Trouble".

Find an author without a story. Interesting things + ability to write = great story! Doesn't matter if it comes from one or two people.

And I would guess that the next four years will be a popular market for legal stories of corruption (from people of all political affiliation).

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#165

Post by sschueller »

dantiberian wrote: post #5
beering wrote: post #2

TL;DR: The "Bombshell" is Alphabet/Waymo's lawsuit against Lewandowski and Uber for stealing trade secrets, and an interpretation that Lewandowski formed Otto basically as a cover to get a big payday from Uber in exchange for the secrets.

The bombshell part specifically would be Levandowski arranging with Uber to steal Waymo tech, form Otto, and Uber would acquire Otto. In all of the reporting I read about this after the first filing, this was missed.

With everything that has gone on at Uber including a former friend of Travis' accusing him of stealing the company concept itself, something like this wouldn't be a Surprise.

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#169

Post by elsewhen »

drdre2001 wrote: post #167

Why didn't Uber hire Levandowski, instead of having him build a startup they could buy for hundreds of millions?

hiring a guy for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars might look strange to future investors, but buying a company for that much is commonplace. alternatively, they could have done it in the attempt to limit any potential liability (like this waymo lawsuit) to otto without risking the mothership (uber).
Post reply on HN