"Since Waymo is alleging intentional patent infringement (among other claims), if it prevails, it could win triple damages, as well as other relief, said Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina and an expert in self-driving cars.
The outbreak of a patent war in the nascent field of autonomous vehicles is not surprising, and could eclipse the earlier smartphone patent war, Smith said.
“The world of automated driving used to be very small, with ideas and people moving pretty freely within and between various companies and universities,” he said in an email. “But now that there is real money to be made relatively soon, many of these structures have hardened into actual or potential conflicts.”"