Anthony Levandowski

Levandowski was born on March 15, 1980, in Brussels, Belgium to a French diplomat mother and an American businessman. He moved to California in the mid-1990s. During his teenage years, he developed websites for local businesses.

In 1998, Levandowski entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in industrial engineering and operations research.{{cite web|author=Bonnie Azab Powell|date=13 February 2003|url=http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/02/13_levandowski.shtml|title=Spotlight on student entrepreneurs: At 22, Anthony Levandowski is already a veteran businessman|work=UC Berkeley News|access-date=13 September 2016}} As a freshman, he founded La Raison, an intranet and IT services company that made fifty thousand dollars in its first year.{{Cite web|title=At 23, Anthony Levandowski is already a veteran businessman|url=https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/02/13_levandowski.shtml|access-date=2020-06-16|website=www.berkeley.edu}} His sophomore year, Levandowski built the BillSortBot, a robot made from 300 Lego pieces that sorted Monopoly money for the Sun Microsoft robotics competition. He won first place. In 2003, Levandowski launched Construction Control Systems with Randy Miller to build WorkTop, a portable blueprint reader and updater for construction sites.

In 2003, Levandowski and fellow Berkeley engineers, as the "Blue Team", started building an autonomous motorcycle, nicknamed Ghostrider, for the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge.{{cite web|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/robotic-prius-takes-itself-for-a-spin-around-sf/|title=Robotic Prius takes itself for a spin around SF|first=Declan|last=McCullagh|date=September 26, 2008|work=CNET|access-date=13 September 2016}} It was built over several years for an estimated $100,000 and competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004 and 2005. It was the only autonomous two-wheeled vehicle in the competitions.{{cite web|first=Mark|last=Harris|date=19 Nov 2014|url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-unknown-startup-that-built-googles-first-selfdriving-car|title=The Unknown Start-up That Built Google's First Self-Driving Car|work=IEEE Spectrum|access-date=13 September 2016}} The motorcycle was retrofitted with video cameras, computers, a GPS receiver, an IMU, and motors to power the clutch and steering.{{Cite web|title="Ghostrider" Robot Motorcycle|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1332301|access-date=2020-06-16|website=National Museum of American History|language=en}} At the DARPA Grand Challenge, the motorcycle collapsed at the starting line due to a forgotten switch preventing it from stabilizing. Despite this, as the team lead, participation in the DARPA Grand Challenge paved the way for Levandowski to build PriBot, the first self-driving car to drive on public roads.{{Cite web|title=Full Page Reload|url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/ghostrider-the-self-driving-motorbike-that-launched-anthony-levandowski|access-date=2020-06-16|website=IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News|date=February 27, 2018|language=en}} In 2007, Levandowski donated Ghostrider to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where it resides.

File:MCE 2016 - Josh Switkes, Sean Waters and Anthony Levandowski.jpg

In 2006, Levandowski began working with Sebastian Thrun, whom he had met at the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, on VueTool. Vuetool was a Stanford street mapping project that used cameras mounted on vehicles to create maps.{{cite magazine|last1=Harris|first1=Mark|date=27 August 2017|title=God Is a Bot, and Anthony Levandowski Is His Messenger|url=https://www.wired.com/story/god-is-a-bot-and-anthony-levandowski-is-his-messenger/|magazine=Wired|access-date=29 September 2017}} In early 2007, Google X hired Thrun, Levandowski, and their entire team to help develop the Google Street View system. To meet Larry Page's target of capturing {{convert|1000000|km}} of roadways before the end of 2007, Levandowski ordered 100 Toyota Priuses from a local dealership. The Street View team's success was partially due to the "Topcon box" or IP-S2 Mobile Mapping System, a roof mounted box composed of Lidar, cameras, GPS, IMUs, and wheel encoders that enabled a car to drive around and create a 3D map. The Topcon box was designed by 510 Systems, a start-up co-founded by Levandowski in early 2007 alongside Pierre-Yves Droz and Andrew Schultz.{{Cite news|last=Higgins|first=Jack Nicas and Tim|date=2017-05-23|title=Google vs. Uber: How One Engineer Sparked a War|language=en-US|work=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-star-engineer-sparked-a-war-between-google-and-uber-1495556308|access-date=2020-06-16|issn=0099-9660}} Google employed 510 Systems technology until it quietly acquired the company in 2011.

In 2008, Levandowski was approached by the director of Discovery Channel's Prototype This! requesting to use the Ghost Rider in an episode to deliver a pizza using an unmanned vehicle. The Ghost Rider was in the Smithsonian at the time, so Levandowski offered to retrofit a Toyota Prius for the show. Levandowski approached Google and 510 Systems with the venture, but they both turned him down for liability reasons. Levandowski stated, in an interview with The Guardian, "Google was very supportive of the idea, but it absolutely did not want its name associated with it. Google was worried about a Google engineer building a car that crashes and kills someone." In June 2008, with Google's blessing, Levandowski founded Anthony's Robots in order to build the PriBot.{{Cite web|title=Robotic Prius Takes Itself For A Spin|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robotic-prius-takes-itself-for-a-spin/|access-date=2020-06-17|website=www.cbsnews.com|date=September 16, 2008 |language=en-US}} The PriBot was "a self-driving Toyota Prius with one of the first spinning Lidar laser ranging units and the first-ever to drive on public roads."{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/19/self-driving-car-anthony-levandowski-uber-otto-google|title=How a robot lover pioneered the driverless car, and why he's selling his latest to Uber|first=Mark|last=Harris|date=19 Aug 2016|work=The Guardian|access-date=13 September 2016}} For the show footage, the police cleared the road and escorted the driverless Prius on a pre-determined route from San Francisco across the Bay Bridge. The drive was successful, aside from scraping against a guard rail on a sharp turn. Within the span of weeks, Levandowski had demonstrated that self-driving cars were possible, even on a budget. By early 2009, Levandowski and Thrun were greenlit by Brin and Page to launch their own driverless car project within Google. Anthony's Robots was acquired by Google in 2011 alongside his company 510 Systems for an estimated $20 million.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37117831|title=Uber to deploy self-driving cars in Pittsburgh|work=BBC News|date=August 18, 2016|access-date=13 September 2016}}

{{Main|Waymo}}

In 2009, Levandowski and Thrun co-founded Google's self-driving car project Chauffeur, now known as Waymo. Over the next two years, Levandowski's 510 Systems built five additional self-driving Priuses for Google. In 2011, Levandowski lobbied Nevada to allow the testing of autonomous vehicles. In May 2012, the Las Vegas DMV performed the first self-driving car test with Chris Urmson in the driver's seat and Anthony Levandowski in the passenger seat. The car passed the test.{{Cite web|title=Full Page Reload|url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-googles-autonomous-car-passed-the-first-us-state-selfdriving-test|access-date=2020-06-17|website=IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News|date=September 10, 2014|language=en}} Levandowski continued to work as a technical lead on Google's self-driving car project alongside Chris Urmson, Dmitri Dolgov, and Mike Montemerlo until January 2016, when he left to launch Otto. In addition to Project Chauffeur, Levandowski's contributions to Google include work on Street View, Cardboard, Telepresence, Ground Truth, Oblique Aerial Imagery, and Tiramisu. Levandowski allegedly downloaded 9.7 GB of Waymo's confidential files before resigning to found Otto.

Otto was founded in January 2016 by Levandowski, Lior Ron, Claire Delaunay, and Don Burnette. Eleven Google employees also joined them. Otto retrofitted big rig trucks with self-driving kits.{{cite web|title=Introducing Otto, the startup rethinking commercial trucking|url=https://blog.ot.to/introducing-otto-the-startup-rethinking-commercial-trucking-cfdc502ef452|website=Medium|date=May 17, 2016|publisher=Otto|access-date=29 September 2017}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite magazine|last1=Harris|first1=Mark|title=How Otto defied Nevada and scored a $680m payout from Uber|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/11/how-otto-defied-nevada-and-scored-a-680-million-payout-from-uber/ |magazine=Wired|date=November 28, 2016|access-date=29 September 2017}}{{cite magazine|last1=Harris|first1=Mark|title=How my public records request triggered Waymo's self-driving car lawsuit|url=https://www.wired.com/2017/02/how-my-public-records-request-triggered-waymos-self-driving-car-lawsuit/|magazine=Wired|date=February 27, 2017|access-date=29 September 2017}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/technology/want-to-buy-a-self-driving-car-trucks-may-come-first.html|title=Want to Buy a Self-Driving Car? Big-Rig Trucks May Come First|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 17, 2016|access-date=13 September 2016|last1=Markoff|first1=John}} Levandowski stated he left Google because he, "was eager to commercialize a self-driving vehicle as quickly as possible." Otto was acquired by Uber in late July 2016, at which point Levandowski assumed leadership of Uber's driverless car operation.{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/18/uber-acquires-otto-to-lead-ubers-self-driving-car-effort-report-says/|title=Uber acquires Otto to lead Uber's self-driving car effort|work=TechCrunch|date=August 18, 2016 |access-date=13 September 2016}}{{cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-08-18/uber-s-first-self-driving-fleet-arrives-in-pittsburgh-this-month-is06r7on|title= Uber's First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month|newspaper= Bloomberg.com|date= August 18, 2016|publisher=Bloomberg Businessweek|access-date=13 September 2016}} ln May 2017 Levandowski was fired from Uber after Waymo and Google charged he had raided Waymo's design server. In July 2018 Uber's autonomous trucking program was shut down.{{Cite web|title=Uber Parks Its Self-Driving Truck Project, Saying It Will Push For Autonomous Cars|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/07/31/634331593/uber-parks-its-self-driving-truck-project-saying-it-will-push-for-autonomous-car|access-date=2020-06-18|website=NPR.org|date=July 31, 2018|language=en|last1=Chappell|first1=Bill}}

In 2015, Levandowski established a religious organisation called Way of the Future with the stated intention of creating a god with "Christian morals" through artificial intelligence.{{cite magazine |last1=Harris |first1=Mark |date=27 August 2017 |title=God Is a Bot, and Anthony Levandowski Is His Messenger |url=https://www.wired.com/story/god-is-a-bot-and-anthony-levandowski-is-his-messenger/ |accessdate=29 September 2017 |magazine=Wired}} He dissolved the organization in 2021.{{Cite web |last=Korosec |first=Kirsten |date=2021-02-18 |title=Anthony Levandowski closes his Church of AI |url=https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/18/anthony-levandowski-closes-his-church-of-ai/ |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}}

In 2018, Levandowski launched Pronto AI to produce a camera-based, self-driving highway-only retrofit system for semi-trucks. Levandwoski's bankruptcy filings in 2019 showed that he had invested over $8.5 million into the company.{{Cite web |last=Korosec |first=Kirsten |date=2022-02-16 |title=Inside the Uber and Google settlement with Anthony Levandowski |url=https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/15/inside-the-uber-and-google-settlement-with-anthony-levandowski/ |access-date=2023-01-30 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}} As proof of concept, Levandowski claimed to have taken a modified self-driving Prius {{convert|3,100|mi}} across the United States.{{Cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/story/anthony-levandowsk-pronto-self-driving-truck/|title=Self-Driving's Outcast Returns With a Robotruck Scheme|last=Davies|first=Alex|date=2018-12-18|magazine=Wired|access-date=2018-12-19|issn=1059-1028}}{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/02/anthony-levandowski-is-back-with-a-new-self-driving-startup-called-kache-ai/|title=Anthony Levandowski is back with a new self-driving startup, called Kache.ai|work=TechCrunch|date=July 2, 2018 |access-date=20 July 2018}} Some publications expressed doubt over the video's authenticity.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/18/anthony-levandowski-claims-cross-country-trip-in-self-driving-car.html|title=Anthony Levandowski claims cross-country trip in self-driving car|last=Salinas|first=Sara|date=2018-12-18|website=www.cnbc.com|access-date=2018-12-19}} Engadget noted that the video was uploaded as a timelapse, making it difficult to verify the footage.{{Cite web |title=Ex-Uber engineer claims to travel 3,099 miles in a self-driving car |url=https://www.engadget.com/2018-12-18-levandowski-claims-3099-mile-self-driving-car-trip.html |access-date=2023-01-20 |website=Engadget |date=December 18, 2018 |language=en-US}} As of 2022, the company had pivoted to developing self-driving vehicles for more limited use in environments such as quarries.{{Cite news |date=2022-10-06 |title=Even After $100 Billion, Self-Driving Cars Are Going Nowhere |language=en |work=Bloomberg.com |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-10-06/even-after-100-billion-self-driving-cars-are-going-nowhere |access-date=2023-01-20}}

In February 2022, Levandowski launched Pollen Mobile, an open-source wireless network. Pollen Mobile distributed antennas and other devices, called Flowers, Hummingbirds and Bumblebees to consumers. The network is used by Pronto AI’s autonomous vehicles and is operational in the Bay Area.{{Cite web |title=Anthony Levandowski's latest moonshot is a peer-to-peer telecom network powered by cryptocurrency |url=https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/02/anthony-levandowskis-latest-moonshot-is-a-peer-to-peer-telecom-network-powered-by-cryptocurrency/ |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=TechCrunch |date=February 2, 2022 |language=en-US}}

In October 2022, Levandowski expressed doubt that self-driving cars would find mainstream success in the near future.

According to a February 2017 civil lawsuit filed by Waymo officially known as Waymo v. Uber (Levandowski was not a defendant in the case),{{Cite web|url=https://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/waymo-v-uber-surprise-settlement-five-days-into-trial|title=Waymo v. Uber: Surprise Settlement Five Days into Trial|website=Harvard Journal of Law & Technology|date=March 3, 2018 |language=en|access-date=2020-03-09}} Levandowski allegedly "downloaded 9.7 GB of Waymo's confidential files and trade secrets, including blueprints, design files, and testing documentation"{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@waymo/a-note-on-our-lawsuit-against-otto-and-uber-86f4f98902a1|title=A note on our lawsuit against Otto and Uber|date=2017-02-23|website=Medium|access-date=2017-02-23}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-23/alphabet-s-waymo-sues-uber-for-stealing-self-driving-patents|title=Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets|date=2017-02-23|newspaper=Bloomberg.com|access-date=2017-02-23}} before resigning to found Otto.{{cite news|last1=Chafkin|first1=Max|last2=Bergen|first2=Mark|title=Did Uber Steal the Driverless Future From Google?|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-16/fury-road-did-uber-steal-the-driverless-future-from-google|access-date=19 May 2017|work=Bloomberg Businessweek|date=16 March 2017}}{{cite news|last1=Isaac|first1=Mike|title=How Uber and Waymo Ended Up Rivals in the Race for Driverless Cars|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/technology/silicon-valley-driverless-cars.html|access-date=19 May 2017|work=The New York Times|date=18 May 2017|page=A1}} Google co-founder Larry Page was reluctant to file the suit. However, he was pushed over the edge when one of Waymo's suppliers inadvertently copied a Waymo engineer on an email of a schematic of Uber's Lidar design. Uber's design appeared to be almost identical to that of Waymo.{{cite book|title=Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber|author1=Mike Isaac|title-link=Super Pumped|publisher=W. W. Norton|date=2019|isbn=9780393652246}}{{rp|234}} The civil suit between Uber and Waymo was settled in February 2018 with Uber agreeing to pay Waymo 0.34% of its equity, valued at approximately $245 million, and not to use the unit's technology.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/uber-waymo-settled-trade-secrets-clash/2018/02/09/1a314c38-0db6-11e8-998c-96deb18cca19_story.html|title=Uber to pay $245 million to settle Waymo's theft allegations|last1=Liedtke|first1=Michael|last2=Krisher|first2=Tom|date=February 9, 2018|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=9 February 2018|agency=AP}}

Before filing its lawsuit against Uber in 2017, Google had separately taken Levandowski to private arbitration over a contract dispute.{{Cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/29/waymo-pursued-arbitration-with-anthony-levandowski-before-it-sued-uber/|title=Waymo pursued arbitration with Anthony Levandowski before it sued Uber|website=TechCrunch|date=March 29, 2017 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-09}} On March 4, 2020, Levandowski filed for bankruptcy protection after the court confirmed an arbitration panel's ruling that Levandowski and his colleague Lior Ron had breached their employment contracts with Google by poaching employees for their startup. The panel found that Levandowski owed Google $179 million—$120 million accounted for the salary he received while at the company, and the remainder for interest and legal fees accrued.{{Cite news|last=Isaac|first=Mike|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/technology/anthony-levandowski-google-uber.html|title=Star Engineer Who Crossed Google Is Ordered to Pay $179 Million to Company|date=2020-03-04|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-03-07|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

On March 30, 2020, Levandowski filed a motion with a California bankruptcy judge to force Uber to honor its contractual obligation to indemnify Levandowski. At issue is the validity of the indemnification agreement that Uber, Levandowski, and Ron entered into pre-acquisition. According to a court document, "The indemnification agreement was structured to ensure that Mr. Levandowski would not be left unprotected against Google, which had inexhaustible resources to attack Mr. Levandowski."{{Cite web|url=https://www.law360.com/articles/1258840/levandowski-says-uber-must-arbitrate-contract-fight|title=Levandowski Says Uber Must Arbitrate Contract Fight - Law360|website=www.law360.com|language=en|access-date=2020-03-31}} Uber initially honored the agreement and covered both Levandowski and Ron's legal costs. However, in April 2018, days before the final arbitration hearing that resulted in Levandowski owing Google $179 million, Uber informed him it would be seeking reimbursement for his defense costs, arguing he had breached their agreement by refusing to testify.

In March 2017, United States District Judge William Alsup referred the civil case to federal prosecutors, citing the Economic Espionage Act of 1996{{Cite news|last=Henning|first=Peter J.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/business/dealbook/levandowski-trade-secret-uber.html|title=What Is a Trade Secret? A Key Question in the Case Against Anthony Levandowski|date=2019-09-10|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-03-09|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} after Levandowski exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.{{cite news|last1=Wakabayashi|first1=Daisuke|last2=Isaac|first2=Mike|title=Uber Executive Invokes Fifth Amendment, Seeking to Avoid Potential Charges|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/technology/uber-waymo-levandowski.html|access-date=19 May 2017|work=The New York Times|date=31 March 2017|page=B5}} In May 2017, Judge Alsup ordered Levandowski to refrain from working on Lidar at Uber and required Uber to disclose its discussions on the technology.{{cite news|last1=Isaac|first1=Mike|title=Uber Engineer Barred From Work on Key Self-Driving Technology, Judge Says|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/technology/uber-self-driving-lawsuit-waymo.html|access-date=19 May 2017|work=The New York Times|date=16 May 2017|page=B1}} Levandowski was later fired by Uber for failing to cooperate in an internal investigation.{{cite news|last1=Mullin|first1=Joe|date=30 May 2017|title=Uber engineer Levandowski, accused of massive theft from Google, has been fired|publisher=Ars Technica|url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/ubers-levandowski-gets-fired/|access-date=30 May 2017}} Soon after the case went to trial, Uber, through its lawyers, publicly apologized for hiring Levandowski.{{rp|255}}

In February, 2022, Levandowski, Uber and Google negotiated a global settlement agreement for the lawsuit Google brought against Levandowski. According to court records, Uber agreed to pay Google a “Substantial Portion” of the settlement, honoring their indemnification clause with Levandowski. Levandowski was required to pay between $25M and $30M.{{Cite web |title=Inside the Uber and Google settlement with Anthony Levandowski |url=https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/15/inside-the-uber-and-google-settlement-with-anthony-levandowski/ |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=TechCrunch |date=February 16, 2022 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Rosenblatt |first=Joel |date=February 14, 2022 |title=Uber Settles Waymo Litigation in Saga That Drew in Thiel, Trump |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-15/uber-settles-waymo-litigation-in-saga-that-drew-in-thiel-trump |website=Bloomberg}}

In April 2022, the settlement agreement faced objections from the U.S. Department of Justice and California’s Internal Revenue Service over the tax implications for Levandowski’s estate.{{Cite web |title=Uber's Payment in Engineer's Bankruptcy Plan May Carry Tax Bill |url=https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/ubers-payment-in-engineers-bankruptcy-plan-may-carry-tax-bill |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=news.bloomberglaw.com |language=en}}

On August 27, 2019, Levandowski was charged by the Department of Justice for the alleged theft of trade secrets from Google's self-driving unit Waymo. In months before he left Google, the charges alleged Levandowski downloaded thousands of files from Waymo's predecessor, Project Chauffeur. The data allegedly included "critical engineering information about the hardware used on Project Chauffeur self-driving vehicles," and that Levandowski transferred files onto his laptop before leaving the company. Following the indictment, Pronto, a new self-driving trucking company that Levandowski co-founded, announced that its Chief Safety Officer, Robbie Miller, would take over as CEO.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/27/ex-google-engineer-levandowski-charged-with-taking-trade-secrets-to-uber.html|title=Ex-Google engineer charged with taking self-driving car trade secrets; DOJ considers flight risk and asks for $2 million bond|last2=Zaveri|first1=Lauren|last1=Feiner|first2=Paayal|date=2019-08-27|website=CNBC|language=en|access-date=2019-08-29}}

On March 19, 2020, Levandowski agreed to plead guilty to one of the thirty-three charges initially brought against him by the Department of Justice. Originally charged with stealing documents containing trade secrets, technical specifications, and Lidar design, Levandowski's pleaded guilty to downloading an internal project tracking document called, "Chauffeur TL Weekly – Q4 2015"—a spreadsheet consisting of team goals, project metrics, and weekly status updates accessible by Levandowski's team on an unsecured Google Drive. Levandowski admitted to accessing the document about one month after leaving Google in February 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://www.law360.com/articles/1255278/levandowski-cuts-plea-deal-to-end-google-ip-theft-charges|title=Levandowski Cuts Plea Deal To End Google IP Theft Charges|work=Law360|language=en|access-date=2020-03-20}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/19/levandowski-guilty/|title=Ex-Uber executive Anthony Levandowski pleads guilty to trade-secret theft|last=Albergotti|first=Reed |date=19 March 2020|newspaper=Washington Post|language=en|access-date=2020-03-20}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-autonomous-levandowski-idUSKBN21646I|title=Former Uber self-driving head Levandowski agrees to plea deal over Google secrets|date=2020-03-19|work=Reuters|access-date=2020-03-20|language=en}}

On August 4, 2020, Levandowski formally pleaded guilty to one count of trade secret theft, and Judge William Alsup sentenced him to 18 months in prison. Prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining 32 charges as a part of the plea agreement.[https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-uber-executive-sentenced-18-months-jail-trade-secret-theft-google Former Uber Executive Sentenced To 18 Months In Jail For Trade Secret Theft From Google] (press release), Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California (August 4, 2020).{{Cite web|author=Sara O'Brien|title=Former Uber self-driving car exec sentenced to 18 months in prison|date=August 5, 2020|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/04/tech/anthony-levandowski-google-uber-sentencing/index.html|access-date=2020-08-05|publisher=CNN Business}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-19/former-google-engineer-levandowski-to-plead-guilty-to-theft|title=Former Google Engineer Levandowski to Plead Guilty to Theft|date=2020-03-19|work=Bloomberg News|access-date=2020-03-23|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/former-google-self-driving-engineer-pleads-guilty-trade-secrets-theft-n1164491|title=Ex-Google self-driving engineer pleads guilty to trade secrets theft|website=NBC News|date=March 20, 2020 }}{{Cite web|title=Anthony Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison, as new $4B lawsuit against Uber is filed|url=https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/04/anthony-levandowski-sentenced-to-18-months-in-prison-as-new-4b-lawsuit-against-uber-is-filed/|access-date=2020-08-05|website=TechCrunch|date=August 4, 2020 |language=en-US}} During the sentencing, Alsup said, "this is the biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen.  This was not small.  This was massive in scale." He also described Levandowski as a "brilliant, groundbreaking engineer that our country needs. We need those people with vision. I'm going to give him that."{{Cite web|last=Information|first=Amir Efrati|title=Briefing: Ex-Google Engineer Levandowski Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison|url=https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/d428a2|access-date=2020-08-05|website=The Information|date=August 4, 2020 }} In addition to time served, Levandowski was ordered to pay $756,499.22 in restitution to Waymo and a fine of $95,000.{{Cite web|title=Anthony Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison, as new $4B lawsuit against Uber is filed|url=https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/04/anthony-levandowski-sentenced-to-18-months-in-prison-as-new-4b-lawsuit-against-uber-is-filed/|access-date=2020-08-05|website=TechCrunch|date=August 4, 2020 |language=en-US}}

On January 20, 2021, his last day of his first term, President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Levandowski.{{Cite web|title=Anthony Levandowski, an engineer who stole trade secrets, receives a Trump pardon.|author=Adam Satariano|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/20/business/us-economy-coronavirus/anthony-levandowski-an-engineer-who-stole-trade-secrets-receives-a-trump-pardon|date=January 20, 2021}}

In February 2022, Showtime released the series Super Pumped, which portrays the history of Uber from CEO Travis Kalanick’s perspective. Levandowski was portrayed by Jeremy Howard in episodes 5 and 6.{{Cite web |last=Tobias |first=Scott |date=2022-03-28 |title=Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber Recap: Here Comes a Regular |url=https://www.vulture.com/article/super-pumped-the-battle-for-uber-season-1-episode-5-recap-the-charm-offensive.html |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=Vulture |language=en-us}}{{Cite web |last=Tobias |first=Scott |date=2022-04-04 |title=Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber Recap: Reaping and Sowing |url=https://www.vulture.com/article/super-pumped-the-battle-for-uber-season-1-episode-6-recap-time-bomb.html |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=Vulture |language=en-us}}

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• {{Official website|https://anthonylevandowski.com}}

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