The Uber self-driving cars become yet another controversial issue for the transportation company adding up to their slew of PR media mishaps. Google's self-driving car division Waymo has made strides in the autonomous vehicles industry.
With that said, Waymo is now setting their eyes on their competitor Uber, and not just for the sake of being competitive. According to Ars Technica, Waymo is suing Uber for allegedly stealing from them, particularly the Uber self-driving cars division executive, Anthony Levandowski.
Levandowski was allegedly working on "competing side businesses" during the time when he was still working under Google. In addition, it is reported that the Uber self-driving cars technology was created from trade secrets illegally obtained from Google.
To make matters worse, Levandowsk allegedly recruited other Google employees to join his own business, at the time when he was still working for Google themselves. However, the Uber Self-driving cars division head refused to disclose further information about the allegations by exercising his fifth amendment rights.
This issue will once again mar Uber's reputation, considering that they have been through PR pandemonium ever since the Uber CEO's controversial incident. Despite the company's recent alarming issues, Uber sets their eyes forward as they hope the increase their overall valuation.
According to CNBC, they hope to accomplish this by selling their services to, not just civilians, but to the government as well. The source specified two of Uber's business models. One of these models involves selling the myriad of driving data Uber has collected, to the government, so that they can properly create infrastructure improvements. Another of Uber's proposal to seek government funding is supplying transportation services to underdeveloped neighborhoods.
Furthermore, these don't necessarily involve the Uber self-driving cars division, which is currently still under fire. This gives Uber more varied options while luring eyes away from their more sensitive issues, thus ultimately giving them a much bigger chance at success.
