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

Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 142 posts

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#11

Post by baq »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #4

How long does Uber have left? Another post about Uber from yesterday said they had around a year left of runway. As an aside: Every day for at least the past month an Uber story talking about their failings has dominated Hacker News. I strongly believe that Uber's problems are extremely importantant, and deserve to be on the front page. But, its really tiring to talk about a company that is stumbling every single day…

the mob wants to hear about Uber's problems, the mob upvotes Uber's problems, so there's a lot of content that the mob wants to read on the front page. wait a bit for the topic to cool down.

replace the mob with happy users if you wish.

disclaimer: i'm a part of the mob, it's a very interesting topic for me.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#12

Post by treyfitty »

ishansharma wrote: post #3

Now just putting conspiracy theory hat for a moment, but can it be the real reason behind Travis walking out? Board got to know that this would come out and got rid of him to do some damage control?

Large organizations are always making decisions behind the scenes. I wouldn't call it a "conspiracy theory" in the "tin foil hat" sense. I would just call it a theory where actors conspired to oust Travis.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#15

Post by samstave »

throwaway29292 wrote: post #5

I count 4 Uber stories on the front page today. There have been a few every week since the past few months. Will this sordid saga ever end? I feel this is like watching a newsreel about the same topics every few days.

This is a super annoying sentiment:

* why cant we shutup about snowden already

* stop posting about uber

* plenty of other examples

* get back to talking about [tech topic] that truly is tech

etc...

These are important issues. snowden was critically important to discuss. uber is important to learn from.

anyone attempting to shut down/stifle/limit discussion or examination/reflection of topics that stem from, affect, and, largely define, in the minds of those not in tech, the overall image of tech, should be regarded as having dubious intentions.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#16

Post by ithinkinstereo »

untog wrote: post #8
zitterbewegung wrote: post #4

How long does Uber have left? Another post about Uber from yesterday said they had around a year left of runway. As an aside: Every day for at least the past month an Uber story talking about their failings has dominated Hacker News. I strongly believe that Uber's problems are extremely importantant, and deserve to be on the front page. But, its really tiring to talk about a company that is stumbling every single day…

I suspect how long Uber has left is directly tied to Travis leaving - it was the main investors in the company that pushed him out. I suspect they used the threat of withholding a future round of funding to do so - with Travis out, I imagine Uber is safe to raise another round.

Seems like an empty threat. If they withhold funding their already sizable investments are lost. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#17

Post by rayiner »

csours wrote: post #2

So to take a kind of backwards view here, are there any consequences for Waymo if they are incorrect in this filing? Or is this the part of legal wrangling where you throw mud and see what sticks? To be sure, there's a great deal of smoke around Levandowski and the Otto acquisition, and probably some fire as well.

There are consequences, but they're more related to the adequacy of Google's basis for making the assertion rather than whether it is ultimately correct or incorrect. Accuracy of representations in filings in federal court is governed by Rule 11: https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_11. Lawyers and their clients can be (and regularly are) sanctioned for violating the rule. The rule enumerates various requirements, but the gist of it is that you have to have a good faith basis for any legal argument or factual assertion you put in a filing. Viewed retrospectively, if you're wrong and the other side brings a Rule 11 motion for sanctions, you had better be able to explain that you acted in good faith by conducting a reasonable investigation and finding information backing up your assertion.

With regards to allegations like the ones here, the backup might be, e.g. emails that tend to suggest Kalanick knew about the misappropriated IP, or even an interview with a witness who said Kalanick knew. After further discovery that could turn out to be wrong--the emails might not reveal the full context, or the witness misinterpreted the situation, or, more likely, there is simply a greater volume of emails or testimony suggesting that he did not know. That's fine under Rule 11, what matters is that there was some factual basis to begin with.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#18

Post by j2bax »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #4

How long does Uber have left? Another post about Uber from yesterday said they had around a year left of runway. As an aside: Every day for at least the past month an Uber story talking about their failings has dominated Hacker News. I strongly believe that Uber's problems are extremely importantant, and deserve to be on the front page. But, its really tiring to talk about a company that is stumbling every single day…

Considering the parent company of this forum (a startup accelerator) and the high profile of Uber in the startup world, I think it's appropriate to watch very closely how this unfolds. It should serve as a cautionary tale for many a future startup.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#19

Post by parthdesai »

baq wrote: post #11
zitterbewegung wrote: post #4

How long does Uber have left? Another post about Uber from yesterday said they had around a year left of runway. As an aside: Every day for at least the past month an Uber story talking about their failings has dominated Hacker News. I strongly believe that Uber's problems are extremely importantant, and deserve to be on the front page. But, its really tiring to talk about a company that is stumbling every single day…

the mob wants to hear about Uber's problems, the mob upvotes Uber's problems, so there's a lot of content that the mob wants to read on the front page. wait a bit for the topic to cool down. replace the mob with happy users if you wish. disclaimer: i'm a part of the mob, it's a very interesting topic for me.

It's only the people in tech who know about Uber's problems. All of my friends who aren't in tech don't know anything about Uber's problems and use it regularly. Heck i still use it if the surge is below 1.5 since it's either Uber or Taxi.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#20

Post by ithinkinstereo »

samstave wrote: post #9

in all of this drama, as others have mentioned that the board may have been calculating the release of travis and perhaps others, all I can think of is just how complicit and shady everyone else on the board is. I can doubt they didnt know anything about uber's DNA and how much of a douche-factory they were running just to make a shit ton of money themselves. While I think that uber (ride sharing in general) has grea…

Bill Gurley has a known reputation and history for being a shady VC. AngelList was created basically out of Naval's experience getting royally screwed by Gurley.
Post reply on HN