The ride-hailing company will have to develop new technology if it can’t reach a licensing deal with Waymo, after an independent investigation found Uber benefitted from trade secrets stolen from the Alphabet subsidiary. Uber said in a securities filing this week that the ordeal “could limit or delay our production of autonomous vehicle technologies.” (Reuters)

Talking point: The company is already playing catch-up to Waymo, which launched as a Google project in 2009, six years before Uber started developing autonomous-car technology. Since then, Uber has spent more than US$1 billion in the space. Having to license some of its technology from Waymo will add to its costs while the company is facing pressure to control its growing losses. At the same time, Uber’s in-house R&D has slowed, which could put it further behind its rival: last month, it made cuts to its self-driving-car unit, which included employees in its Advanced Technologies Group in Toronto.