Q: What do Google, Waymo, Uber & DOJ have in Common?
A: Anthony Levandowski, who may or may not have been set up to take the fall for bigger and nastier dirt like intellectual property theft; or,
B: Detroit Land Bank Authority,
et al?
However did these AI start ups get all that money and land?
I wonder what happened to all those jobs.
We should as Mike Duggan.
#perkinscoiesucks
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A former Google self-driving car engineer was charged Tuesday with 33 counts of stealing or trying to steal the company's trade secrets related to the technology, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
The initial accusation that Anthony Levandowski stole secret materials from Google in 2015 rocked Silicon Valley and led to a blockbuster civil trial last year.
Levandowski, who is expected to appear in San Jose federal court Tuesday, could face up to a decade in prison if convicted.
“All of us, generally speaking, are free to move from job to job, but what we cannot do is stuff our pockets on the way out the door,” U.S. Attorney David Anderson said at a press conference in San Jose.
Levandowski, 39, was allowed to self-surrender, which he did at the San Jose federal courthouse. Anderson would not comment on the Justice Department probe of Uber.
Miles Ehrlich and Ismail Ramsey, lawyers for Levandowski, said they will fight the charges.
"This cash rehashes claims already discredited in a civil case that settled more than a year and a half ago," the lawyers said in a written statement handed out at the courthouse. "The downloads at issue occurred while Anthony was still working at Google — when he and his team were authorized to use the information."
In 2017, Waymo — Google's self-driving car operation — sued Uber, and while Levandowski never testified at the trial the following year, his absence loomed large over it.
The fight began in February 2017, when Waymo publicly alleged that former star engineer Levandowski “downloaded over 14,000 highly confidential and proprietary design files for Waymo’s various hardware systems,” including a crucial laser-based system known as LiDAR.
In federal charges unsealed Tuesday, the government claims that in December 2015, Levandowski took nearly 10 gigabytes of secret data from his employer.
“Silicon Valley is not the Wild West," said John Bennett, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Francisco bureau, at the same press conference. "The fast-paced and competitive environment does not mean that federal laws can be ignored."
Levandowski abruptly left Google early in 2016, founding the company Otto, which was quickly acquired by Uber for $680 million — an astonishing amount for a company that was only several months old.
In 2017, during hearings in the run-up to the civil trial, Levandowski fought hard to keep silent. He repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, protecting himself against self-incrimination and was threatened with being fired rather than comply with court orders.
According to former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's July 2017 deposition, Levandowski downloaded the files as an "insurance policy" to protect a $120 million bonus from Google. But Kalanick was blunt with his analysis of his then-employee’s behavior: "That's pretty f---ing dumb."
After four days of trial in February 2018, the lawsuit ended in a surprise settlement.
Anderson said Uber and Google's Waymo were both supportive of the investigation and provided materials to the government
Since being fired from Uber in May 2017, Levandowski has gone on to found a related company called Pronto, which he announced in December 2018. Its top executives include veterans from Uber, Otto and Google.
Pronto announced on Tuesday that Robbie Miller, the company's chief safety officer, would be taking over as chief executive.
Waymo has picked Detroit for final assembly of its self-driving vehicles.
The company, once known as Google's self-driving car project and now a leader in the push to develop autonomous vehicles, had previously said it was scouting locations in southeast Michigan but did not name a specific city.
CEO John Krafcik revealed Detroit as the company's choice in a blog post scheduled to publish Tuesday titled, "Making Waymos in Motor City." It refers to being "up and running" this year.
"Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve found the perfect facility in Detroit. We will partner with American Axle & Manufacturing to repurpose an existing facility, bringing a workforce back to an area where jobs in the automotive industry were recently lost," according to the post.
A company spokeswoman said the Detroit facility will be where the company integrates Waymo's self-driving hardware and software systems into Chrysler Pacificas and Jaguar I-Paces for its commercial ride-hailing fleet.
A Michigan Economic Development Corp. memo had said the project would involve the creation of at least 100 jobs with a potential for 400 jobs and a capital investment of $13.6 million. Waymo, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., Google's parent, had requested an $8 million Michigan Business Development Program grant.
Waymo is to lease and repurpose an existing facility on the American Axle and Manufacturing campus on Holbrooke where American Axle has its world headquarters, Detroit Business office and Advanced Technology Development Center. The company notes that it ended production of front axles there in 2012.
The location was most recently being used as sequencing center for a local parts supplier, and American Axle recently moved back into the facility with business operations in the administrative portion of the building, according to the company.
Chris Son, American Axle vice president of marketing and communications, said in a statement that “we are excited to partner with Waymo and be a part of bringing future automotive technology to our Detroit campus."
There had been some speculation that General Motors' Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant, which is scheduled to be idled in 2020, could be in play, although that offered considerably more space than the 200,000 square feet Waymo was seeking. In addition, GM's Cruise unit is in competition with Waymo on self-driving vehicle development.
Waymo has billed its project as the "world's first factory 100%-dedicated to the mass production of L4 autonomous vehicles." The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, citing the Society of Automotive Engineers, lists Level 4 as high automation, one step below full automation.
"The vehicle is capable of performing all driving functions under certain conditions. The driver may have the option to control the vehicle," according to the definition of Level 4.
GM has produced "near Level 4" Chevy Bolts for test purposes at its Orion Assembly Plant.
'Center of the auto industry'
Krafcik thanked a range of individuals and entities for their assistance in the location effort, including Mayor Mike Duggan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, former Gov. Rick Snyder, American Axle and even Dan Gilbert's Bedrock development company.
Both Duggan and Whitmer were quoted in Krafcik's piece. Duggan said the "announcement by Waymo shows that the city of Detroit remains at the center of the future of the auto industry" and Whitmer noted that "Waymo is continuing the city’s momentum and further cementing Michigan as a leader in mobility and the epicenter of advanced automotive manufacturing."
Krafcik cited metro Detroit's automotive industry strengths as a key reason for focusing on the area.
"We wanted this facility to benefit from a location in southeast Michigan — the heart of the American automotive industry — and its strong talent base. We began looking for a facility that would allow us to quickly get up and running by mid-2019 while offering us the flexibility to continue to grow and expand our operations in Michigan over time and where there was a strong pool of talent across engineering, operations and fleet coordination," Krafcik wrote.
He noted that "we’re thrilled to join Detroit’s vibrant community, helping to play a role in the future of the automotive industry in the city that started it all."
The factory will add to Waymo's presence and connections in southeast Michigan and nearby Ontario. Waymo has about 20 employees in the Novi area and a partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which supplies Windsor-made Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
FCA plans
The news is the second announcement this year related to auto manufacturing in Detroit.
Fiat Chrysler in February announced a $4.5 billion expansion in Wayne and Macomb counties, expected to result in 5,000 jobs.
The plan includes a new Jeep plant at the company's idled Mack Avenue Engine factory and an expansion of the Jefferson North Assembly Plant. That deal is pending the City of Detroit assembling 200 acres to complete FCA's needed footprint. The 60-day deadline to complete that under the city's agreement with FCA is this week.
Earlier this month, the city said it was still negotiating the last piece of property needed with the Moroun family. Through its Crown Enterprise real estate arm, the family owns the 80-acre former Budd plant site near Charlevoix and Conner on the east side. Crown currently leases that site to Chrysler for use as a parking lot for new vehicles produced at its Jefferson North Assembly Plant.
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