【经济学人】无人驾驶汽车技术诉讼的背后|2017.05.04|总第888期

• Purloin：vt. 偷窃

• Duplicitous：adj. 奸诈的；双重的；搞两面派的

• Intrigue：n. 阴谋；诡计；复杂的事

• Autonomous：adj. 自治的；自主的；自发的

On one side is Waymo, the self-driving car unit owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. It has accused Uber, a ride-hailing firm, of using stolen technology to develop its autonomous-driving capabilities. The origin of the dispute was a deal last summer when Uber spent $680m to buy Otto, a self-driving lorry firm. Anthony Levandowski, who had worked at Alphabet for ten years and played a big role in its self-driving efforts, had co-founded the startup, which was just seven months old when Uber bought it.

其中一方是Google母公司Alphabet下属主营无人驾驶汽车的分公司Waymo。该公司控告专车服务公司Uber使用盗取的技术开发其无人驾驶功能。这场争论的起因要追溯到去年夏天，Uber斥资6.8亿美元购买

了刚刚成立7个月的无人驾驶货车公司Otto。而Otto的联合创始人Anthony Levandowski曾在Alphabet供职十年之久，其十年的从业经验使Otto在无人驾驶技术的开发中起到了重要作用。

• Ride-hailing：打车服务

• Dispute：vt. 辩论；怀疑；阻止；抗拒

• Lorry：n. （英）卡车；[车辆] 货车

Before leaving Alphabet to start Otto, Waymo claims, Mr Levandowski illegally downloaded around 14,000 computer files that contained proprietary information about its lidar technology. Lidar uses lasers to scan a vehicle’s surroundings and is essential for many self-driving systems. Mr Levandowski has not directly addressed many of Waymo’s allegations . He has invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid making statements that could be self-incriminating . The government could choose to bring criminal charges in the months ahead, and Mr Levandowski has hired his own civil and criminal defence lawyers.

Waymo宣称，Levandowski在离开Alphabet创立Otto之前曾非法下载了大约14000份计算机文件，其中包含有关激光定位器技术的产权信息。激光定位器利用激光扫描汽车四周情况，是多数无人驾驶系统的核心技术。但Levandowski并未正面回应Waymo的指控，而是根据美国宪法第五修正案，避免因做出陈述而自证其罪。政府将在接下来的几个月中择日提起刑事控告，Levandowski则自行聘请了民事和刑事辩护律师。

• Lidar：n. 激光雷达；激光定位器

• Allegation：n. 指控; 陈述，主张; 宣称; 陈词，陈述

• Self-incriminating：自证其罪的

Uber, for its part, has firmly rejected the allegations, and says that its lidar is different from Waymo’s. It had been working on autonomous cars well before it bought Otto, it points out. But the very fact of the lawsuit comes at a bad time for Uber, which is under fire for having a rough-and-tumble