'Startling Paranoia': Ex-Autopilot Director Sued by Tesla, Fires Back

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

The former director of Tesla’s Autopilot program has choice words for his former employer.

Sterling Anderson is being sued by Tesla for stealing confidential information, which he allegedly put to use at a new autonomous vehicle start-up. According to Bloomberg, the electric automaker isn’t happy about his attempts to hire away Tesla employees, either.

In his response to the suit, Anderson doesn’t have very nice things to say about Tesla.

“Tesla’s meritless lawsuit reveals both a startling paranoia and an unhealthy fear of competition,” Anderson’s company, Aurora Innovation LLC, said in a statement Thursday.

“This abuse of the legal system is a malicious attempt to stifle a competitor and destroy personal reputations. Aurora looks forward to disproving these false allegations in court and to building a successful self-driving business.”

Anderson left the automaker in December, but not before laying the groundwork for a new company specializing in self-driving technology, Tesla alleges. During his tenure, the former director had full access to Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving technology. Aurora Innovation was formed with the help of former Google self-driving car head Chris Urmson.

With its suit, Tesla isn’t just looking to block the use of any of its proprietary information. It also wants to slam the brakes on Aurora’s go-to hiring practice. (That is, hiring away Tesla employees and contractors.) If granted, Tesla’s demand would see Aurora cease and desist from hiring these employees for a year following Anderson’s termination date.

Anderson had yet to announce the company when Tesla filed its lawsuit.

[Image: Tesla Motors]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Tele Vision Tele Vision on Jan 27, 2017

    I don't know why anyone would buy an autonomous car for personal use. Driving is one of the great remaining freedoms we get to regularly enjoy. Should a three-pedal car become 'quaint' in my lifetime then I suppose I'm OK with being quaint. My two boys will learn to drive a manual transmission well, then they will get to work on an old Chevy pickup truck, before either get a driver's licence.

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    • Ronnie Schreiber Ronnie Schreiber on Jan 28, 2017

      @Jack Denver And people say dystopian Red Barchetta type stories are pure science fiction.

  • EBFlex EBFlex on Jan 27, 2017

    With Tesla producing nothing but crap, what person in their right mind would poach any of it? Autopilot has killed numerous people, it's a technology to avoid.

    • Stuki Stuki on Jan 27, 2017

      Cars have killed many more people than autonomous tech. Doesn't mean every automotive engineer in history is unworthy of hiring.

  • Stuki Stuki on Jan 27, 2017

    Silicon Valley is losing it's once were edge; one lawyer, VC and other leech at a time. If Tesla can't do what Aurora does better than Aurora, it's best if Tesla close up shop and leave the field to more competent people.

  • CriticalMass CriticalMass on Jan 28, 2017

    Autonomous may not work until everyone is forced to have communications and mandatory cooperation among vehicles. I don't know about you but if I see an autonomous vehicle, especially a commercial one, that is the one I know I can merge in front of without fear it will run me over. I'll have time to steal its parking place. Or maybe make it hold still while I siphon its gas. Intimidation of robots could be great sport! UPS/Amazon would have to lengthen their delivery times, milk would go bad in transit and organ transplants could only be sent reliably by drones. Oh the humanity!

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    • Mcs Mcs on Jan 29, 2017

      @OldManPants Segregation from meat-sack drivers? Okay, what about segregation from even bigger meat-sack deer and moose? V2V communications will augment AV systems, but it's no magic bullet. AV systems will still depend primarily on new sensor technology and improved artificial intelligence. Oh, and merging in front of one without fear? Remember, there are still the laws of physics and it may not have time to avoid hitting you.

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