[nobbis]

Google's SDC efforts are rooted in Anthony's work: he helped kickstart the entire industry. Mark Harris broke the story here: https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/t...

I don't know what IP is in question, but it seems to me that he had been working in AVs longer than almost anyone in the industry, so it's believable that Uber was valuing the Otto team's accumulated experience, rather than any stolen ideas.

[tassl]

This is completely misleading. Even if his first company was the first self driving vehicle project ever (which was not) or the only piece in the puzzle (which it wasn't either), there were other cofounders of that startup. This is glorifying one person using other people's work.

[nobbis]

It was the first self-driving car project to cause established companies to take notice and start investing heavily, kickstarting the industry, which was my point.

Other co-founders, yes, but Anthony was overall product lead. The article goes into detail.