The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

Levandowski and Uber Coordinate Messaging Days Before His Firing

This internal email captures Anthony Levandowski, at the center of the most significant trade-secret lawsuit in autonomous-vehicle history, calmly dividing talking points with Uber colleagues just weeks before he was pushed out of the company.

Suzy Sammons to Anthony Levandowski, Austin Geidt, and Travis Kalanick, March 27, 2017:

"There are a handful of questions on ATG/Tempe for tomorrow's all hands. For any Waymo question, Angela will answer. We clarified last week that we can't provide any more detail on the lawsuit."

The prepared answer for the all-hands included: "On Friday, one of our self-driving vehicles was involved in an incident in Tempe. We paused our development operations and passenger pilots in Tempe, SF and Pittsburgh this weekend while we worked to understand what had happened. We were able to quickly confirm that our vehicle was in self-driving mode, with no backseat passengers, and that no one reported serious injuries. Police in Tempe confirmed the self-driving SUV was obeying the law and the driver in the other car who didn't yield at an intersection was cited for a moving violation. On the messaging, our car was in self-driving mode, and we believe that's still an accurate description of the capabilities we are testing."

Anthony Levandowski replied: "I am prepared to answer the Tempe collision question, and will let Angela answer any Waymo question that might pop up."

This edition is for members — but the daily letter is free.

One real corporate email, and the lesson it teaches, in your inbox every weekday morning. Free. Unsubscribe in one click.

Want this edition and the full searchable archive?

Start your free week →What members get →
Court Exhibit
Waymo LLC v. Uber Technologies, Inc.
3:17-cv-00939 (CAND), Doc. 1228-3, filed 2017-08-16
March 28, 2017
Public domain
View the primary source →