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Anthony Levandowski, the former head of the self-driving car research program at Uber, has been indicted on 33 charges related to stealing secrets from his former employer Waymo, the autonomous driving arm of Google. Federal prosecutors allege Levandowski downloaded 14,000 files, including circuit board layouts and LiDAR designs, from Google's self-driving vehicle division and stored them on a personal laptop.

Waymo has announced it will lease space at American Axle & Manufacturing's Holbrook Avenue factory, which was last used for axle production in 2012. "We've found the perfect facility in Detroit," John Krafcik, Waymo's CEO, told Automotive News. "We will partner with American Axle & Manufacturing to repurpose the existing facility, bringing a work force back to an area where jobs in the automotive industry were recently lost."

New York Police Department (NYPD) has written to Waze, one of Google's mapping services, calling for it to remove 'DWI checkpoint' locations from its app. Unlike regular Google Maps, the Waze app lets drivers report obstacles, traffic, mobile speed cameras and 'DWI checkpoints', known locally as random breath test (RBT) stops or booze buses.

With the launch of iOS 12, the operating system behind the iPhone later this year, Apple users will soon be able to use Google Maps and other third-party navigation apps via the infotainment system of compatible cars. The announcement was made as part of today's keynote speech at Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Diego, California.

Volkswagen and Google have agreed to work together on "practically oriented research" related to quantum computing. The German automaker will use Google's quantum computing technology in three fields of research: traffic optimisation, machine learning, and material simulation, specifically for high-performance electric car batteries.