Anthony Levandowski admits stealing Google's self-driving car secrets

A former Google engineer has admitted stealing trade secrets relating to the company's self-driving car work.Anthony Levandowski was accused of downloading thousands of proprietary files from Google in 2015 prior to leaving the company.One of the files downloaded by Levandowski to his personal laptop was called 'Chauffeur TL weekly updates – Q4 2015,' and featured details about Google's self-driving program. "I downloaded this file with the intent to use it for the benefit of someone other than Google," Levandowski wrote in court filings on Thursday. "The Chauffeur Weekly Update contained a variety of details regarding the status of Google's self-driving car program." Levandowski went on to start an ambitious self-driving truck startup called Otto which was subsequently acquired by Uber. Google took Uber to court over the theft and it was eventually settled for $245 million.