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Donald Trump pardons ex-Waymo, Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski
Anthony Levandowski, an engineer convicted of stealing information about self-driving car tech from Google/Waymo, has been pardoned by Donald Trump.
Have robots roll your joints and infuse your budder this High Stoner Holiday
Ugh, when did getting stoned become so much work? Back in my day, there was one kind of weed: whatever strain your dealer had in stock. And there were only three ways to enjoy it: through a perforated apple, rolled up in a crude approximation of a joint, or out of a brass pipe you had a homeless guy buy for you on Haight Street. (Thanks again, Igloo!) Never did I have to worry about whether I had the right kind of charging cable or port adapter, only whether my BIC lighter still had gas. Now I've got to consider indicas vs sativas, THC vs CBD, and whether I want to smoke, vape, sublimate, eat or drink my weed. It's all getting to be just a bit much. That's why this 4/20, I'm going back to basics. I'm going to roll a couple monster joints and eat as much weed butter-smeared sourdough toast as my belly will hold. Of course that doesn't mean I'm going old school all the way and doing this all by hand. Here are the gadgets I'll be using to stoner-proof the process.
Uber ends autonomous truck program to focus on self-driving cars
Two years after Uber bought self-driving truck developer Otto to the tune of $680 million, the ride hailing company announced on Monday that the Uber Advanced Technologies Group is shuttering its autonomous truck unit. The company remains committed to further developing its self-driving car platform, which has only killed one pedestrian so far. Uber Freight, a separate service that helps connect shipping companies with drivers, is being spared as well.
Uber's former self-driving lead is working with a secretive startup
Uber's former self-driving research lead Anthony Levandowski isn't giving up on his best-known technology just because of his forced exit over alleged trade secret theft. TechCrunch has discovered that Levandowski is involved with Kache.ai, a currently secretive startup devoted to autonomous tech for the "commercial trucking industry," or the same field Levandowski has been working in for years. The firm has taken steps to hide its connections, but they're hard to avoid. California lists the business as operating at a property owned by Levandowski's father and stepmother, while TC's own sources have attached Levandowski to the company.
The gear you need to celebrate 4/20 like a responsible adult
It's 4/20 everybody, the High Stoner Holiday where we burn our trees rather than decorate them! The celebrations mark a magical moment when everybody can get the giggles with reckless abandon while satiating their munchies with traditional holiday tidings like Abba-zabba and Taco Bell. Today offers neophyte cannabis enthusiasts and hardcore stoners alike an opportunity to indulge in the mild euphoric of their choice with like-minded friends and family, or really, anybody standing with a dutchie on their right-hand side. But just as Christmas suffers from SantaCon, 4/20 celebrations attract their own brand of red-eyed knuckleheads who make the rest of us look bad. So unless you want to get lumped in with the folks who still proudly display their Scarface poster from college, put down that comically large blunt and read on.
Uber’s self-driving trucks are making deliveries in Arizona
Uber announced today that its self-driving trucks have been operating in Arizona for the last couple of months. The company said it has two main transfer hubs in Sanders and Topock, but other than that, Uber is being pretty tight-lipped about the operation. For instance, it hasn't shared how many trucks are in use, how many miles they've driven, what they're shipping or how often drivers have to take over for the autonomous system, and has only said that the trucks have completed thousands of rides to date.
Android's official augmented reality toolkit is available to the public
Google's take on a mobile augmented reality framework is no longer limited to a modestly-sized preview. It just released ARCore 1.0, letting anyone publish Android apps that take advantage of the toolkit to meld virtual objects with the real world. To no one's surprise, Google has already lined up apps from big-name brands to take advantage of the new platform. Snapchat has an AR "portal" that takes you inside FC Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium, while Porsche lets you explore the Mission E Concept as if it were parked in front of you. A number of games (such as Ghostbusters World and a range of titles from NetEase) and home furnishing apps (Sotheby's, JD.com, Easyhome and Otto) are also on tap.
Levandowski faces fresh accusations of stealing trade secrets
The Waymo v. Uber trial is set to finally get started next month, but Anthony Levandowski, the man who has been accused of taking 14,000 files from Google's self-driving outfit when he left the company for his own startup Otto, has been hit with a lawsuit that may affect Waymo's. Wired reports that Levandowski's former nanny, Erika Wong, has filed a suit against him claiming Levandowski failed to pay her wages, violated labor and health codes and inflicted emotional distress. But the complaint also includes details of Levandowski's business practices, which suggest that he might have been paying off employees of other autonomous vehicle companies and that he considered fleeing to Canada when Waymo first filed its lawsuit.
Smart lock maker Otto folds before releasing its first product
On a landscape increasingly driven by smart devices, a digital smart lock seemed like an obvious addition to the raft of home automation products already on the market. But Otto, the company that came closer than any other to making the product a sellable reality, has now closed its doors -- just four months after showing off its device to the world.
'Jacobs letter' unsealed, accuses Uber of spying, hacking
Waymo's lawsuit against Uber for allegedly stealing technology for self-driving cars hasn't gone to trial yet, because the judge received a letter from the Department of Justice suggesting Uber withheld crucial evidence. That letter, with some redactions, is now available for all to read and it's not good news for Uber. It was written by the attorney of a former employee, Richard Jacobs, and it contains claims that the company routinely tried to hack its competitors to gain an edge, used a team of spies to steal secrets or surveil political figures and even bugged meetings between transport regulators -- with some of this information delivered directly to former CEO Travis Kalanick.
DOJ confirms criminal investigation into Uber vs. Waymo
The civil trial between Uber and Waymo over stolen self-driving technology was supposed to start December 4th, but Judge Alsup announced a delay last month. Now he has unsealed the letter (over objections from the US Attorney's Office in San Francisco) from the Department of Justice that caused the delay. It not only confirms that there is a criminal investigation into Uber's behavior, it reveals a former employee's claim that the company intentionally used "non-attributable electronic devices" (read: burner phones and the like) to conceal use of any stolen technology. In the letter, it also says that the former employee, Richard Jacobs, described a "hypothetical" where two CEOs could meet covertly for a long period of time prior to an acquisition. Two CEOs, like, say, Anthony Levandowski of Otto and Travis Kalanick of Uber.
Court filing shows what former Waymo engineer allegedly took to Uber
Last year when Uber was considering a purchase of newly founded self-driving truck company Otto, it commissioned a due diligence report that dove into the company, its assets, cofounders Anthony Levandowski, Lior Ron and Don Burnette and a few other employees that left Google for the startup. It became a hot item in the Waymo lawsuit against Uber and though Uber and Levandowski fought to keep the document out of Alphabet's hands, a judge ordered it to be turned over to Google's and Waymo's parent company by September 13th. Well that document has now been made publicly available, Recode reports, and some of its contents don't look great for Uber.
Waymo wants $2.6 billion from Uber for a single trade secret
During a hearing today wherein Alphabet's self-driving unit Waymo asked a judge to delay its upcoming trial against Uber in order to review new evidence, Reuters reports that one of Uber's attorneys said Waymo is seeking $2.6 billion for the alleged theft of one of the trade secrets listed in its complaint. That's a heck of a lot of money, especially considering that single trade secret -- and it's not clear which one it is -- is one of nine total. What damages Waymo is requesting for the other eight weren't disclosed.
Uber shows off its upgraded fleet of autonomous trucks
Uber's interest in self-driving vehicles doesn't begin or end at taxis, which is why it's developing a platform for autonomous trucks, too. A year on from the company's, er, controversial purchase of Otto, and Uber has unveiled its second-generation big rig with a wholly upgraded set of sensors. Including an entirely new, 64-channel LIDAR array that, according to TechCrunch, was purchased off the shelf, from Velodyne.
Google says Uber created a fake company to steal its secrets
Uber is having a bad year, for sure. In February, Google's parent company Alphabet sued Uber, claiming that it stole proprietary self-driving car technology from Google's Waymo project. The plaintiff's lawyers also claim that the original LLC, Ottomotto, was created as a diversionary tactic and that Uber and Otto executives planned to acquire the company all along. In a court hearing today, Waymo lawyers referenced stock awards, timelines and emails to support their claims. The current details revolve around Anthony Levandowski, the former Waymo executive who founded Otto and is now working at Uber.
Alphabet asks court to halt Uber's self-driving car project
Alphabet's self-driving car division Waymo seeks to completely block Uber's autonomous vehicle operations, according to new documents filed in federal court Friday. The documents are part of Waymo's lawsuit filed against Uber last month and the company is seeking a preliminary injunction which could prohibit Uber's self-driving vehicle tests while the case is ongoing.
The Future IRL: Deliveries via robot
Your online delivery habit is facing a growing problem: the rising number of packages needing delivery, combined with a projected deficit in truck drivers (PDF). But that's the issue a company like Starship Technologies is trying to solve. It just started testing a delivery robot in US cities (though the company has been overseas for a few years, already) and is hoping both its design and cost win over any skeptics worried about a robot that knows where they live and what kind of food they like. Don't miss the next episode of Future IRL on March 7th, when we'll be looking at the future of virtual reality.
How an animated-GIF camera morphed into a nascent chip empire
Not many computers can thank GIFs for their existence. In 2013, Dave Rauchwerk worked on a San Francisco art installation that allowed people to record and project a GIF of themselves onto a building. It was popular and led to Rauchwerk joining with two friends to start a hardware company called Next Thing Co. Their aim? To create a camera that can capture GIFs for $100. After a long stay in China with the HAX Accelerator, Next Thing Co. launched OTTO, a $250 "hackable GIF camera" in 2014. It was the first product to integrate Raspberry Pi's Compute Module, and generated a lot of interest. Keen mathematicians may have noted the discrepancy in the intended and actual price -- $250 is many more dollars than $100 -- and the public did, too.
Uber's self-driving car partner skirted state rules to get noticed
Remember how Otto demonstrated a self-driving big rig truck without anyone in the cabin, making a great case for its eventual acquisition by Uber? It turns out that the company knowingly broke the rules, according to Backchannel... but also didn't have to face consequences for its actions. Nevada (where Otto shot its promo video) requires both a special license and people in the cockpit for any autonomous testing, but Otto decided that the month of licensing, modification and testing would take too long -- it went ahead anyway. Officials were outraged, and there was even talk of the state's Department of Motor Vehicles backing away from self-driving tech and placing it in the hands of a department focused on business development.
A real-world Hyperloop preview, and more in the week that was
The Hyperloop cometh: Danish architecture firm BIG just gave the world a sneak peek at a 93-mile track designed to connect Abu Dhabi and Dubai, while the University of Waterloo is set to test the world's first levitating pneumatic system next week. Tesla is having a great month as it turned a profit for the first time in two years and unveiled its next-generation Powerwall 2.0 system. Meanwhile, Henrik Fisker gave the world a first look at his upcoming 'Tesla-killer" supercar, which is set to launch next year. And Otto delivered the world's first shipment by a self-driving truck: 51,744 cans of Budweiser beer.
