Ex-Google self-driving car engineer made more than US$120m

San Francisco

A FORMER Google engineer at the centre of a fight over self-driving car technology made more than US$120 million, according to a legal filing on Monday, highlighting the intense competition among tech companies and carmakers for talent in the nascent sector.

The autonomous vehicle unit, now called Waymo, claimed in an arbitration demand against the former employee, Anthony Levandowski, that he breached his contract by recruiting from its ranks for his rival company, Otto, while collecting more than US$120 million in incentive payments from the search giant.