The lawsuit involving two of Silicon Valley?s most high-profile companies had the potential to reshape the fledgling self-driving-vehicle industry. Instead, the fight between Waymo and Uber over alleged stolen trade secrets ended Friday with a settlement.
After months of anticipation and delays, the trial was scheduled to enter its fifth day Friday morning when a Waymo lawyer announced a deal had been struck. Under the terms of the settlement, Waymo will receive a 0.34 percent stake in Uber, which adds up to a current value of $245 million.
That?s significantly short of the $1 billion that Waymo had originally sought in damages. But the settlement further includes an agreement that prohibits Uber from incorporating any of the confidential hardware and software technology at the heart of the lawsuit into its self-driving systems. With that stipulation, the settlement leaves the companies? self-driving programs largely where they started. Waymo remains a front-runner in the industry while Uber trails behind. Sam Abuelsamid, a senior analyst with Navigant Research, recently developed a leader board that ranks the status of major companies developing automated-driving systems. In that analysis, Waymo ranked second, while Uber was 17th of the 19 companies measured.

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?While we won?t agree on everything going forward,

we agree that Uber?s acquisition of Otto could and should have been handled differently.?
? Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO
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?It?s largely the status quo,? he sa...