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Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

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Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#131

Post by dzhiurgis »

hyperbovine wrote: post #110
kinghajj wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An obvious difference between IP theft and muggings, however, is that the later also entails threats of violence (and sometimes even assault & battery). That's why robbery is generally considered more heinous than burglary, where the victims are typically not present or asleep. I'd agree though that some sort of dollar figure should be attached to the psychological trauma of being mugged, so that great-enough white-c…

I'll bet if you asked most people what they would prefer less, getting beat up or losing $500 million, the would answer the latter.

Which distributed among all Google shareholders is $100 each?

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#132

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

dmerfield wrote: post #78
sanguy wrote: post #52

Anthony is overrated and a complete psychopath. He doesn't understand it's basic right from wrong. In his mind IP is boundless and his, not Googles. This comes from 5 years of working in fairly close contact. Zero morals. He is what's wrong with Silicon Valley - on equal grounds to Travis from Uber. I can completely see this all being planned for years just like circumventing the iPhone App Store rules. As a Google s…

Do you really think he should be in prison for intellectual property infringement ?

There are people in prison for stealing petty items, how would you propose someone that steals something worth millions be punished? Should the fact that it is an idea and information and not a tangible item make a difference?

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#133

Post by acchow »

rsp1984 wrote: post #81
sanguy wrote: post #52

Anthony is overrated and a complete psychopath. He doesn't understand it's basic right from wrong. In his mind IP is boundless and his, not Googles. This comes from 5 years of working in fairly close contact. Zero morals. He is what's wrong with Silicon Valley - on equal grounds to Travis from Uber. I can completely see this all being planned for years just like circumventing the iPhone App Store rules. As a Google s…

My impression from working at Google was that lack of respect for property is unfortunately part of Google's culture. I've met this mindset on many occasions, so this whole lawsuit, as well as the fact that Levandowski was allowed to rise high at the company, doesn't surprise me a bit. It's just that in this case it was one of their own engineers using it against them, for a change.

Well, the FOSS movement believes all software belongs to the world, doesn't it?

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#134

Post by throwaway90125 »

artursapek wrote: post #53
encoderer wrote: post #32

Worth remembering that Google paid this guy over $120 Million in compensation. He is a tech "1%"er, which really is saying a lot. That is hedge fund money. I'm not certain, but I think the average engineer would feel more loyalty to a company that has given them multi-generational wealth. I'm all for engineers getting paid, but in this case the guy didn't even have to do what most wealthy engineers do: deliver an act…

I really don't understand how people get greedy after earning that much money. Is it just the high/excitement the comes from it? Seems like money would no longer be motivating.

From everything I've read, he didn't leave because of the money. He left because Google didn't ship. When you want to build a SDC future and that's what you're passionate about you go wherever will support that dream. Google started as that company and was overtaken by a company that was more supportive.

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#135

Post by Schwolop »

kchoudhu wrote: post #129
Schwolop wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy built a self-driving motorcycle . I laughed at the first DARPA Grand Challenge when it travelled 30cm before falling over. I ate my words the next year when it made it most of the way. By comparison, after a year of learning to ride a motorbike I barely make it to work each day without shitting myself.

I for sure would have remembered some rinky dink motorcycle lining up for the start in Primm in 2005. His team didn't make it past the NQE in LA, IIRC.

The physical object is in the Smithsonian [1]. There's footage of it falling over in 2005 [2][3]. Is that enough? :-P

1) http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah... 2) http://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/the-blue-tea... 3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bkhviWgSg

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#136

Post by Schwolop »

thesmallestcat wrote: post #107
Schwolop wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy built a self-driving motorcycle . I laughed at the first DARPA Grand Challenge when it travelled 30cm before falling over. I ate my words the next year when it made it most of the way. By comparison, after a year of learning to ride a motorbike I barely make it to work each day without shitting myself.

Why does he get all of the credit for this? He was part of a team.

Sure, but he was the team leader. I was part of a team that built autonomous vehicles too, but the fact that there were others involved doesn't stop me writing "built an autonomous vehicle" on my CV.

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#137

Post by ChuckMcM »

dragonwriter wrote: post #13
ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumption of innocence. You have to assume that the people are innocent until they are proven guilty. If you fired Levandowski and win the case, then he sues. If you leave him in place and you're found guilty, there are extra damages because you were "notified" and you still didn't stop his work. So you move him off to the side, wait for the trial to resolve. And then figure out what to do with him, which will be e…

> You have to assume that the people are innocent until they are proven guilty. You only have to do that when you are the trier of fact (jury in a jury trial, judge in a bench trial) in a criminal prosecution. Outside of that, the rules are different. > If you fired Levandowski and win the case, then he sues. And loses, because at-will employment, and being suspected, even wrongly, of civil wrongdoing creating liabil…

If he has an employment contract as is likely as the chief executive of an acquired company, and by firing him essentially without cause (the allegations are unproven) he was owed significant compensation which was denied him presuming it was for cause. He would sue for breach of contract. But we do not know his arrangement with the company.

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#138

Post by alphonsegaston »

throwaway90125 wrote: post #134
artursapek wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't understand how people get greedy after earning that much money. Is it just the high/excitement the comes from it? Seems like money would no longer be motivating.

From everything I've read, he didn't leave because of the money. He left because Google didn't ship. When you want to build a SDC future and that's what you're passionate about you go wherever will support that dream. Google started as that company and was overtaken by a company that was more supportive.

When seemingly conspiring with Uber to defraud Google to a nine-figure tune, ascribing his motivations to the latter's "failure to ship" is quite...generous.

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#139

Post by nindalf »

propman wrote: post #60
sanguy wrote: post #52

Anthony is overrated and a complete psychopath. He doesn't understand it's basic right from wrong. In his mind IP is boundless and his, not Googles. This comes from 5 years of working in fairly close contact. Zero morals. He is what's wrong with Silicon Valley - on equal grounds to Travis from Uber. I can completely see this all being planned for years just like circumventing the iPhone App Store rules. As a Google s…

In your assessment, do you believe Anthony created Otto after discussing a buyout with Travis? In other words do you think it's likely that Travis and Anthony had planned all this before? All the evidence points to Anthony being guilty and Uber likely getting an injunction, but if this was all pre-orchestrated I would like to see jail time

Google claims that Lewandowski visited Uber headquarters to discuss a potential buyout. Obviously it's impossible to know what was said there but the following day Lewandowski quit Google, carrying (as Google claims) every single byte of data related to the autonomous car project.

I say "Google claims" because they haven't proven anything yet but it seems likely, in my opinion, that what they claim is true.

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#140

Post by brakkus »

rsp1984 wrote: post #81
sanguy wrote: post #52

Anthony is overrated and a complete psychopath. He doesn't understand it's basic right from wrong. In his mind IP is boundless and his, not Googles. This comes from 5 years of working in fairly close contact. Zero morals. He is what's wrong with Silicon Valley - on equal grounds to Travis from Uber. I can completely see this all being planned for years just like circumventing the iPhone App Store rules. As a Google s…

My impression from working at Google was that lack of respect for property is unfortunately part of Google's culture. I've met this mindset on many occasions, so this whole lawsuit, as well as the fact that Levandowski was allowed to rise high at the company, doesn't surprise me a bit. It's just that in this case it was one of their own engineers using it against them, for a change.

Well this is clear rubbish...
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