The Information reports today that Travis Kalanick is preparing to launch a self-driving car company with backing from Uber — the company that forced him out as CEO in 2017. He's discussing the acquisition of Pronto.ai, the autonomous trucking startup founded by Anthony Levandowski — the engineer whose theft of self-driving trade secrets from Google triggered the lawsuit that nearly killed Uber and ended Kalanick's tenure. The three parties whose collision over stolen technology became the defining scandal of Silicon Valley's self-driving era are reuniting around the same technology that tore them apart.

The Scandal

To understand what today's news means, you have to go back to 2017.

Anthony Levandowski was a star Google engineer who helped build the company's self-driving car program. In January 2016, he left to found Otto, an autonomous trucking startup. Seven months later, Uber acquired Otto for $680 million. Three months after that, Waymo — Alphabet's self-driving spinoff — discovered that Levandowski had downloaded 14,000 files containing its proprietary lidar designs before leaving Google.

In February 2017, Waymo sued Uber. The texts between Kalanick and Levandowski that surfaced in court showed how urgently Uber's CEO wanted the technology. By May, Levandowski was fired for refusing to cooperate with investigators. By June, Kalanick himself was out, forced to resign by his own board after a cascade of scandals in which the self-driving controversy was the most damaging.

February 2018
Uber settles Waymo lawsuit, pledges not to use Waymo's trade secrets; Waymo will receive 0.34% stake in Uber worth about $245M
Bloomberg

Uber settled with Waymo for $245 million. Levandowski was charged by federal prosecutors in August 2019, and sentenced to 18 months in August 2020 for trade secret theft. On his last day in office, Donald Trump pardoned Levandowski.

The three principals scattered. Kalanick retreated to City Storage Systems, a ghost kitchen venture that became CloudKitchens. Levandowski launched Pronto.ai, a self-driving truck startup. Uber, under new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, tried to continue building autonomous vehicles — then gave up entirely.

The Surrender

In December 2020, Uber sold its entire self-driving unit to Aurora Innovation for $4 billion. The Advanced Technologies Group — the division that had absorbed Levandowski's work, survived the Waymo lawsuit, and consumed billions in R&D — was gone. Uber was out of the self-driving business.

At the time, it looked like a capitulation. Uber had spent years and billions trying to own self-driving technology. The Waymo lawsuit, the Levandowski conviction, the mounting losses — they all pointed to the same conclusion: Uber couldn't build this.

It turned out to be the smartest thing Uber ever did.

The Platform

Freed from building autonomous vehicles, Uber did something counterintuitive. It became the platform that every autonomous vehicle company needs.

The pivot started with an unlikely partner. In May 2023, Uber and Waymo announced a "multi-year" partnership to make Waymo's robotaxis available through the Uber app. The company that had sued Uber for stealing its technology was now paying Uber for access to its riders.

Then the deals cascaded:

In February 2026, Uber formalized this with Uber Autonomous Solutions — a dedicated unit offering insurance, fleet management, and rider matching for any autonomous vehicle operator. Uber wasn't building the car. It was building the network the car couldn't work without.

The Return

Which brings us to today. Kalanick has renamed CloudKitchens' parent company to Atoms, signaling a pivot from ghost kitchens to robotics and physical-world automation. He's preparing to launch a self-driving car company. And The Information reports he's discussing acquiring Anthony Levandowski's Pronto.ai to do it.

March 2026
Sources: Travis Kalanick prepares to launch a self-driving car company with Uber's backing and Anthony Levandowski's technology
The Information

The backing is coming from Uber. The same Uber that forced Kalanick out. The same Uber that settled with Waymo over the technology Levandowski stole. This is not a coincidence — it's the logical conclusion of Uber's platform strategy.

In 2017, Uber needed to own self-driving technology because it feared being displaced by it. Kalanick's desperation — the kind that led to the Levandowski acquisition and the trade secrets scandal — came from the belief that whoever built the autonomous car would own the ride.

Nine years later, Uber has proven the opposite. The network is more valuable than the vehicle. Waymo can build the best robotaxi in the world, but it still needs Uber's riders. Every autonomous vehicle company — Waymo, Zoox, Motional, Cruise — ends up plugging into the same platform.

Now Uber can afford to fund Kalanick's return to self-driving because the power dynamic has inverted. In 2017, Uber needed the technology Kalanick was acquiring. In 2026, Kalanick needs the network Uber controls. If he builds a successful autonomous vehicle, it will drive on Uber's platform.

The Irony

On the same day that Kalanick's self-driving plans became public, Uber relaunched its robotaxi service with Hyundai-backed Motional in Los Angeles. One more partner. One more vehicle on the network. Business as usual for the platform that the Waymo lawsuit accidentally created.

Consider the full arc:

The trade secrets scandal that nearly destroyed Uber forced it out of a business it was losing billions on. The exit freed Uber to become the platform — the one thing every autonomous vehicle company needs and none can replicate. Waymo, the company that sued to protect its technology from Uber's theft, now depends on Uber's network to reach riders.

And the two men at the center of the original scandal — the CEO who was ousted and the engineer who was convicted — are back. Building the thing they tried to take by force nine years ago. This time, with permission. This time, as a supplier to the platform, not a competitor to it.

The scandal that broke Uber apart is what made it unbreakable.