Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick reveals how his dream to partner with Google crumbled

Google and Uber mulled teaming up on self-driving car technology, but the relationship iced over, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said in a deposition published this weekend.

The deposition centers on an ongoing lawsuit between Alphabet's self-driving car unit Waymo (formerly all under Google) and Uber. The tech giants are fighting over whether a star self-driving car engineer, Anthony Levandowski, stole and used a Google technology at Uber.

But the hours-long deposition also sheds light on the disintegration of the relationship between Uber and one of its biggest investors, Google. Google Ventures reportedly about $250 million in Uber in 2013, one of its largest deals at the time, giving Kalanick wide range to do whatever he pleased.

Since then, though, Uber and Google have shifted from partners to a "cold war." The companies are not only involved in this lawsuit, but Waymo recently agreed to team up with Uber's arch-rival, Lyft, to help bring self-driving cars to market.

Here are some events that Kalanick said splintered the relationship between the two companies:

Google told Uber it was getting serious about ride-sharing. David Drummond, a senior vice president at Google and former board member at Uber, agreed to "recuse himself from board meetings" around October 2014, according to Kalanick.

"He said that Google is intending to compete with Uber in the ridesharing space. And that the efforts were substantive enough and serious enough that he felt compelled to tell us that that was happening."

Kalanick continued, "I don't remember my exact words, but I remember feeling disappointed a little bit, a little burned by the relationship."

Kalanick was concerned that a start-up called Argo AI, founded by an ex-Googler, was trying to collect intel to feed back to Google. Uber began talking to Anthony Levandowski, a star Google engineer, in late 2015, and Levandowski started spending more time with him in early 2016.

During the same period, Uber was also looking at acquiring another start-up run by an ex-Google employee with the last name "Salesky," (presumably Brian Salesky of Argo AI, which later took a big investment from Ford, although the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment).

"Lots of people were looking to leave Google at this time. And most of their top people were leaving," Kalanick said. But Kalanick said he was "quite worried" that Salesky was still in communication with Google co-founder Larry Page.

"Because Salesky was — my understanding — again, I've never met him, but my understanding of the meetings they had with him, you could never quite trust him. And so he was talking to us about working with us in some way. We weren't sure if he was talking to us about working with us or talking to us and then going back to Google and telling him — telling them everything that he learned by talking us," Kalanick said.

Waymo exec sent an e-mail trashing the engineers Uber acquired with Otto. When Uber ultimately decided to acquire Levandowski's start-up, Otto, in 2016, Kalanick said that his then-deputy, Emil Michael, received a "lowbrow" email from Waymo CEO John Krafcik, insulting the qualifications of the former Google employees that Uber had acquired.

"It's strange for a leader to talk trash on the people that he hired just because they leave and work somewhere else," Kalanick said.

Waymo and Alphabet were cool to a partnership. Nonetheless, Drummond, Krafcik and Kalanick met in Mountain View during the same summer that Otto was acquired to see if they could put a partnership together between Waymo and Uber, according to Kalanick.

"I think it was the first time we were meeting Krafcik. He gave us a tour of the -- some of the facility, and then we spent the conversation with us talking -- you know, myself and Emil talking about our ideas for how we could partner. And Krafcik really sort of not deeply engaging in the -- in the conversation," Kalanick said.

Kalanick said he was "constantly making a pitch to partner with them," something that Drummond had advocated for.

"He was a big believer it was the right thing. I was a big believer it was the right thing. I could get my company behind that. David couldn't get — couldn't get, you know, Larry [Page] and other folks and just Google, essentially, behind that notion," Kalanick said.

Larry Page got paranoid about Uber stealing their IP. In October of 2016, Kalanick said he asked Page to call him to talk about "flying cars," an area of technology that Uber is interested in, and that Page has invested in through a start-up called Kitty Hawk.

But Kalanick said he also wanted to discuss partnering on driverless cars.

Kalanick's pitch was "was very similar to all the considerations I have had over the years, which is: You guys have -- you guys have been working on this quite a while. You have great expertise. We have developing expertise, but we haven't been in this industry as long. We certainly have a lot of ridesharing things going on. There could be a really interesting .... potential in partnering those two efforts."

But Page still didn't seem interested, and was a bit upset, suggesting they could discuss it again at the beginning of 2017, according to Kalanick.

"[W]hat he kept talking about us taking his IP," Kalanick said. "And I kept responding and telling him that hiring his people is not taking his IP. .... And he kept not understanding that, but not explaining himself either. He wasn't getting into details or in any way sort of helping me understand his issue. .... I told him, we will open up our facility if you think we have taken IP. Like, come take a look. We will have your people take a look. We will dig deep and make sure. But we were very confident about the process of acquisition and the process we have in hiring people."

It was just strange," Kalanick said. "He — he kind of just kept repeating the same thing. This is what I remember. I don't remember the specific words, but it was like he was repeating the same thing over and over."

Source: Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick reveals how his dream to partner with Google crumbled

Can the flying car, the Uber of the air, become a reality, saving you time and money?

Picture this: You download an app that directs you to the top of a nearby building, where you hop on a flying car.

Is this ride-hailing experience — something like Uber — the wave of the transportation future? Could it save you time and, thus, money?

Maybe, but it's not quite ready for prime time, said Laura Einsetler, pilot for a major U.S. airline and author of the book "Remove Before Flight: Remove Your Fears and Concerns Before Your Next Flight."

"It is much like the Jetsons," she said. "In concept it would save time. …There would be increased efficiency for workers who need to travel to and from their jobs or business meetings that must be made in person."

Einsetler is excited about the concept but ….

"We are talking about aviation in a multidimensional and very dynamic environment," she said. "There is no such thing as a 'fender bender' at 500 feet.

"The only way it may work is if it is something like a hover car … is developed so that speeds can be varied and stopped in the sky.

"Now, isn't this comparable to helicopter flying that we already have?"

As a pilot, Einsetler has other worries. "There will need to be trained operators who can drive and fly the vehicles safely," she said. "There must be scrupulous maintenance practices and regulations on these vehicles."

In addition, these vehicles must stay away from the current airways and airspace that airplanes and jets operate in, she said.

Nevertheless, some experts think that this type of service will be in place within the next 10 years.

Roei Ganzarski, chief executive of BoldIQ, a Seattle-based software company, and previously chief customer officer for Boeing's flight services division, contends that it is just a matter of time before helicopters are replaced with safer, more efficient, lower-cost, pilotless flying machines.

Those, he thinks, will rapidly be followed by con sumer-based air taxis.

Howard Bart Freidman, chief operating officers of Jets, an aircraft broker based in the Washington, D.C., area, thinks flying taxis should be inexpensive relative to cars — no driver cost (they would be unmanned), minimal energy cost, 24/7 utilization.

Clive Jackson, chief executive and founder of Victor, a charter jet company, thinks that at first this form of transportation will be expensive, but over time it might not cost much more than hailing a Toyota Prius today.

I asked Ganzarski to offer his insights on the implementation of air taxis and how they will transform everyday travel.

How and why will this type of air taxi revolutionize the way we travel?

Ground transportation is limited to the road infrastructure. Even with smarter cars driving closer together on the road, you are limited by where these roads go and how.

With an air taxi service (and a true vertical takeoff and landing, where a rooftop, grass lawn, or beach c an serve as a landing), the sky is literally the limit.

Air travel is multidimensional. If a direct path from point A to B is full, taxis can simply go up or down 500 feet and the same path may now be empty.

The ability to be creative and productive while being very efficient is what this type of system provides.

This is assuming, of course, that it is indeed set up efficiently and not how ground transport is today: wasteful and inefficient.

Which tech companies and manufacturers will compete in this air taxi market?

Traditional aviation companies like Boeing or Airbus will certainly try, as well as car companies. However, the most successful parties will most likely be either a "Google" that is able to think differently and move fast or a new entrant that is not bound by anything.

That is for the hardware. A software able to manage this real-time, on-demand transport system is also needed.

Will this type of travel be affordable for everyday business/ pleasure travelers?

Like all new technology, it will initially be limited to very high-worth individuals like corporate executives.

Just as the first automobiles and airplanes were first used by the wealthy and then the masses, air taxis will initially follow this pattern.

With time, it will become commonplace.

I wouldn't be surprised to see initial short flights priced in the $250-$350 range, for example, flying from a rooftop in Manhattan to Queens, New Jersey or Valley Stream, or downtown San Francisco to a home in Palo Alto (or split that between passengers to pay $50-$100 a person), eventually dropping down even to tens of dollars for short rides.

How will all of this work?

You will ask to go from point A to B using your watch, head-worn mic or other form of communication that will make the smartphones and apps as we know them obsolete.

A central scheduling engine will evaluate your requests against the relevant resources (transport vehicles, r ooftops, number of vehicles in the air, etc.) and make an intelligent decision on which vehicle can and should pick you up and then where, when and how it will get you to your destination. This plan will be continuously updated in real time as factors change around you.

Will it clog the airways?

Only if you think about airways in the very old way of thinking about them — as roads in the sky.

Oh, wait...that is how we think today. People, industries and governments will have to (and be able to) think about air travel in a different way than today.

And with the right software managing the network, there will be no clogging.

Who will be allowed to fly these planes?

Really smart software … you don't want people at the controls.

When will it happen?

I believe we will see this type of service in place in the next 10 years.

In a way, this service could be in place now using helicopters, and yet we have not seen it take off — pun intended.

Howev er, as the technology for the aircraft is developed, costs are lowered, the pilotless technology is proven and intelligent scheduling software takes hold, the paradigm shift will happen.

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel

Source: Can the flying car, the Uber of the air, become a reality, saving you time and money?

AirQuadOne: The quadbike that doubles as a flying car

A new flying quadbike is set to be presented at the upcoming International Paris Airshow. 

The Vertical Take-off and Landing aircraft, called the AirQuadOne, can reach altitudes of 3,000 feet (914 meters) and flight speeds of up to 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour). 

The 'flying quad' could be used as a means for personal transportation, as well as a replacement for cranes and helicopters or emergency cars.

The flying quad bike, developed by Neva Aerospace, is a fully-electrical vehicle that is expected to weight around 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds). 

Its applications include extreme sports and leisure, parcel transportation, robotic maintenance, active defense and heavy lifting. 

The drone, which will be manufactured as manned and unmanned versions, can fly for 20 to 30 minutes and is expected to be compatible with electric car charging stations – either via direct wire connection or induction or a battery pack switch.

According to Neva Aerospace, the drone's unmanned version will be able to lift payloads of up to 100 kg (220 pounds) and replace craned and helicopters or emergency cars. 

Now, the company is working with regulators and pilots to obtain 'Light Aircraft' certification with the US (FAA) and EU (EASA).

The AirQuadOne will have 24/7 traffic management support when flying, with an emergency satellite communication connection. 

According to Neva Aerospace, the aircraft will be manufactured using recycled carbon and will have static thrust electric turbofans (ETF's) which are designed to optimize Vertical Take-Off and Landing – a pre-requisite for the use of unmanned drones and personal aircraft in crowded industrial and urban skies. 

A hybird version of the drone is set to provide even longer flight times of around 60 minutes based on current battery technology 

The Neva Aerospace co-founder and chairman F.M. Robert Vergnes said: 'We have been working on the AirQuadOne concept since 2013, but waited to share it until our static thrust technology was proven.'

The Neva Aerospace co-founder and chief science officer Professor David Brotheron-Ratcliffe said: 'This is an exciting use of our principles for 3D distributed propulsion with electric turbines. 

'This approach provides safety and control through redundancy. 

'The only limitation we have today is the current limitation of the battery technology available.

'The next steps or us will be ensuring redundancy in flight controls and energy sources.'

The AirQuadOne will be presented at the International Paris Air Show, taking place in the city's Le Bourget airport between June 23 and June 25 2017. 

 

Source: AirQuadOne: The quadbike that doubles as a flying car

Former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski was reportedly working with Larry Page on flying cars

Alphabet CEO Larry Page.Getty Images/Justin Sullivan

Former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski allegedly worked with Alphabet (Google's parent company) CEO Larry Page on flying cars in one of Page's startups, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Levandowski was one of Google's top engineers who worked on the company's self-driving car technology, and was accused by Google of stealing sensitive, classified information he allegedly brought with him to Uber through the acquisition of Ottomotto, the startup he founded immediately after leaving the search giant.

According to the WSJ report, months before his departure, Levandowski was working on a flying car project at Kitty Hawk, one of Larry Page's privately owned startups. He wasn't a formal Kitty Hawk employee, apparently, but he was allegedly testing prototype aircrafts with Page at one point.

One of Kitty Hawk's drone-like aircraft prototypes.Kitty Hawk

In the ongoing litigation between Google and Uber, which involves Page and Levandowski, Google's cofounder claimed that he tried to ward off Levandowski when it came to opening new businesses, especially if they were competing with his own work at Google.

Levandowski was highly regarded among Google's top executives, the Journal says, and worked on side projects outside of the company. However, when Levandowski declared his interest in self-driving trucks — which were technically not part of his work at Google — this didn't sit well with Page.

"I told him very, very clearly that I thought that was highly competitive and not a good idea," said Page, according to the transcript of his deposition, released last Wednesday. "I'm like, 'No, that's not fine. Like, that's the same thing as what you're doing here. I mean, you can do that, but we are not going to be happy.'"

Google did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Get the latest Google stock price here.

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Source: Former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski was reportedly working with Larry Page on flying cars

Daimler invests in Volocopter flying car company

It seems Daimler wants a piece of the flying car market as it has sunk a $30 million investment into the German start-up Volocoptor. Volocoptor's ultimate goal is to develop a battery-electric flying taxi that could revolutionize transport.

The goal is far from being realized, but Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, and other companies have supplied fresh cash, according to a report from Reuters. Among a crowded field of start-up companies, Volocoptor has made progress, however. It unveiled the E-Volo 2X 18-rotor VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) multicoptor earlier this year in production form. The company hopes to start producing the multicoptor as soon as next year.

The multicoptor is capable of traveling up to 17 miles at speeds of 43 mph, but the company says it can go 27 miles with an optimal speed of 31 mph. While the company promises self-flying capabilities, there's still a traditional joystick and manual controls to pilot the multicoptor as well.

The field of startups is crowded. Lillium Jet, AeroMobil, and even Toyota have tossed their hats into the flying car ring. Whether one comes out on top or industry consolidation occurs remains to be seen.

Volocoptor hopes its production mutlicoptor will be received well by the taxi industry since the vehicle will be capable of carrying four passengers. Imagine flying high above traffic jams and arriving at a destination while others remain stranded by automotive gridlock. It's certainly a possibility if Volocoptor has its way.

Of course, the proliferation of or even the advent of the flying car would require regulation as the skies would have to be monitored with some kind of air-traffic control in our cities. It's all part of an interesting future for transportation.

Source: Daimler invests in Volocopter flying car company

System of quadcopters that fly and drive suggest another approach to developing flying cars

One of the researchers' quadcopter drones with wheels is shown.Credit: Brandon Araki/MIT CSAIL

Being able to both walk and take flight is typical in nature — many birds, insects, and other animals can do both. If we could program robots with similar versatility, it would open up many possibilities: Imagine machines that could fly into construction areas or disaster zones that aren't near roads and then squeeze through tight spaces on the ground to transport objects or rescue people.

The problem is that robots that are good at one mode of transportation are usually bad at another. Airborne drones are fast and agile, but generally have too limited of a battery life to travel for long distances. Ground vehicles, on the other hand, are more energy efficient, but slower and less mobile.

Researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are aiming to develop robots that can both maneuver around on land and take to the skies. In a new paper, the team presented a system of eight quadcopter drones that can fly and drive through a city-like setting with parking spots, no-fly zones, and landing pads.

The ability to both fly and drive is useful in environments with a lot of barriers, since you can fly over ground obstacles and drive under overhead obstacles, says PhD student Brandon Araki, lead author on the paper. Normal drones can't maneuver on the ground at all. A drone with wheels is much more mobile while having only a slight reduction in flying time.

Araki and CSAIL Director Daniela Rus developed the system, along with MIT undergraduate students John Strang, Sarah Pohorecky, and Celine Qiu, and Tobias Naegeli of ETH Zurich's Advanced Interactive Technologies Lab. The team presented their system at IEEE's International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Singapore earlier this month.

How it works

The project builds on Araki's previous work developing a flying monkey robot that crawls, grasps, and flies. While the monkey robot could hop over obstacles and crawl about, there was still no way for it to travel autonomously.

To address this, the team developed various path-planning algorithms aimed at ensuring that the drones don't collide. To make them capable of driving, the team put two small motors with wheels on the bottom of each drone. In simulations, the robots could fly for 90 meters or drive for 252 meters, before their batteries ran out.

Adding the driving component to the drone slightly reduced its battery life, meaning that the maximum distance it could fly decreased 14 percent to about 300 feet. But since driving is still much more efficient than flying, the gain in efficiency from driving more than offsets the relatively small loss in efficiency in flying due to the extra weight.

This work provides an algorithmic solution for large-scale, mixed-mode transportation and shows its applicability to real-world problems, says Jingjin Yu, a computer science professor at Rutgers University who was not involved in the research.

The team also tested the system using everyday materials such as pieces of fabric for roads and cardboard boxes for buildings. They tested eight robots navigating from a starting point to an ending point on a collision-free path, and all were successful.

Rus says that systems like theirs suggest that another approach to creating safe and effective flying cars is not to simply put wings on cars, but to build on years of research in adding driving capabilities to drones.

As we begin to develop planning and control algorithms for flying cars, we are encouraged by the possibility of creating robots with these capabilities at small scale, Rus says. While there are obviously still big challenges to scaling up to vehicles that could actually transport humans, we are inspired by the potential of a future in which flying cars could offer us fast, traffic-free transportation.

Story Source: Materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, CSAIL.Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Source: System of quadcopters that fly and drive suggest another approach to developing flying cars

Cop is sent flying after being mowed down by car during traffic stop – but he miraculously walked away

A COP who was sent flying through the air after a car smashed into him during a traffic stop WALKED away from the horrifying accident.

Matt Lesell said he felt like he "was spinning through a washing machine" when the car flipped him into the air.

Youtube/PoliceActivity

Officer Lesell is seen approaching a car at the side of the road in this still from dashcam footage

Youtube/PoliceActivity

A car veers off the road and speeds towards the cop and the parked car

Youtube/PoliceActivity

Officer Lesell is flipped over the car by the impact

Officer Lesell had stopped a car in Fort Worth, Texas, and was walking over to speak to the driver when another car slams into the parked vehicle and ricochets into him, throwing the cop into the air.

Incredibly, Lesell was able to stand up and walk to the side of the road to avoid the traffic after he landed.

He told the Star-Telegram: "Next thing I knew I was flying through the air.

"Every time I watch [the video], I'm still surprised it was not worse.

"My job is going to accidents and seeing horrific events, and I've seen accidents that don't look nearly that bad, but there were worse injuries.

"I'm lucky with how it turned out."

Youtube/PoliceActivity

Amazingly, the officer stood up and walked to the side of the road shortly after the smash

Youtube/PoliceActivity

He suffered relatively minor injuries and will be off work for a month

Miraculously, he only suffered a hyperextended foot and a fractured bone in his back.

After last month's smash he told NBC 5: "Pain-wise, you don't feel much.

"You just know something bad happened and the body does amazing things to limit the pain.

"I kept spitting, and because it was bloody and I didn't know where it was coming from, I knew it was bad."

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A police report named Mike Mitchell, 34, as the driver of the car that hit Lesell.

Mitchell has been charged with intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury to a police officer, according to Tarrant County court records.

Officer Jimmy Pollozani, police spokesman, added: "If the suspect didn't hit the other car first, we would have been planning for a funeral instead."

Yesterday it was reported that a van ploughed into a group of people dining on a Los Angeles sidewalk injuring at least nine people.

A witness saw the van jump a curb and career into a group of people eating outside a restaurant in the city's Mid-Wilshire neighbourhood.

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Source: Cop is sent flying after being mowed down by car during traffic stop – but he miraculously walked away