Big Tech Companies Send a Warning to People Who Try to Go It Alone
- Alphabet and Tesla have pursued departing engineers in court
- Uber fired top engineer at heart of dispute with Waymo
Uber Fires Levandowski for Failing to Comply With Inquiry
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The biggest players in Silicon Valley’s burgeoning autonomous car industry have a warning for their top engineers: if you quit to set up your own company, tread carefully.
Anthony Levandowski, a pioneering self-driving car engineer, became the highest-profile casualty of this increasingly litigious approach after Uber Technologies Inc. fired him in the midst of a contentious legal fight. Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous car project, now called Waymo, sued Uber alleging Levandowski stole some of its core technology and took it to the ride-hailing company when it acquired his startup. Levandowski has refused to testify in the case.