The 9 most ridiculous moments from Uber’s $245 million legal battle with Waymo

uber travis kalanick

Uber and Waymo have settled their epic legal battle over self-driving car tech.
It was like a Hollywood drama, often veering from the deadly serious to the ridiculous.
Here are the craziest moments, from lawyers squabbling over Michael Douglas' performance in "Wall Street" to debate over a "pound of flesh."

Uber and Waymo have reached a settlement in their Hollywood-worthy legal battle over self-driving car technology.

Uber, accused of stealing trade secrets from Google sister company Alphabet, agreed to pay $245 million worth of equity on Friday — abruptly halting the proceedings that had been scheduled to go on for at least another week.

The stakes were high, with Waymo initially seeking as much as $1.8 billion in damages. But over the four days of the trial before the settlement, matters veered wildly from the serious to the surreal.

One moment, presiding judge William Alsup was outlining trade secret law to the jurors; the next, lawyers were bickering over whether they could show the legendary "greed is good" scene from the Michael Dogulas film "Wall Street" in court, or debating the philosophical nature of "cheat codes" with ousted Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

The case revolved around Anthony Levandowski, a former Google engineer, later with Waymo, who left to form a self-driving car startup called Ottomotto that was subsequently acquired by Uber. Levandowski was accused of purloining Waymo's trade secrets, but the settlement meant he never had a chance to take the stand, where he had been expected to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

In fact, the alleged trade secrets weren't even discussed all that much before the proceedings were halted. The majority of the case was held open to the public, with the focus more on allegations of conspiracy between Kalanick and Levandowski than the technical details of the LiDAR self-driving car sensors at issue in the case.

Here are nine of the weirdest and most unusual moments in the dramatic legal battle — along with some of the key points in the transcripts.

1. The judge slammed Uber and Waymo's lawyers for taking up too much room.

Judge Alsup, who presided over the case, is famous for his quips and take-no-prisoners approach, and this case was no different.

Within minutes of the trial beginning, he was chastising both sides' legal teams for taking up too much space — leaving little room for the public.

"This is unconscionable that the law firms would take up this much space," he chided.

2. Travis Kalanick wanted a "pound of flesh."

On Tuesday, Travis Kalanick first took the stand — and his use of unusual idioms and lingo came under heavy scrutiny.

One of the most cryptic was a note saying that he wanted a "pound of flesh" from the Otto team. And while he claimed not to remember saying it, he did admit he uses the Shakespearean phrase from time to time.

[Waymo lawyer] VERHOEVEN: Did you tell the group that what you wanted was a pound of flesh?

KALANICK: I mean, I don't know specifically. It's a term I use from time to time, but I don't know.

VERHOEVEN: Do you deny that you said it?

KALANICK: No.

3. "Laser is the sauce."

Later in the day, a phrase came up that has spawned multiple memes: "Laser is the sauce."

Written on a whiteboard by Kalanick, the phrase perfectly encapsulated both the futuristic nature of the issues at stake, as well as the absurdity of much of the proceedings.

It came up during the questioning of Kalanick by Waymo's lawyers. To those lawyers, it was yet another piece of evidence of the importance of lasers and lidar technology to Uber — that they are the "secret sauce" that underpins self-driving cars, and critical to their success.

VERHOEVEN: And then under Item 3 on the board, read what it says.

KALANICK: "Laser is the sauce."

VERHOEVEN: So during this jam session, you discussed the fact that laser is the sauce; correct?

KALANICK: Yes. I think it was probably a description of our sesh, yes.

VERHOEVEN: And what that meant is that lasers are the sauce to make autonomous vehicles work; right?

KALANICK: It's close. I would say it's an important part of making autonomous work. It doesn't work without it.

...

VERHOEVEN: If you want to make an autonomous vehicle, you must have a viable way to get lasers at scale; isn't that true?

KALANICK: That is correct.

VERHOEVEN: And Uber didn't have that sauce prior to the Ottomotto acquisition, did it?

KALANICK: That's correct.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider