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Am I the only person genuinely shocked Google doesn't slap their self driving car engineers with non-competes? I realize that non-competes are illegal by CA la

by SEJeff 10y ago

Am I the only person genuinely shocked Google doesn't slap their self driving car engineers with non-competes? I realize that non-competes are illegal by CA law, but perhaps they should do the engineering in a different state to stop hemorrhaging talent that tries to compete with them?

andrewfong 10y ago
(1) When most of your existing operations are already in CA, moving to a different state isn't exactly trivial. And if the primary reason you're moving is to enforce a non-compete, I bet it'd make recruitment of the better engineers more difficult. (2) Even if Google did their engineering in another state, let's say the engineer in question then moves to CA. There's a good chance that CA law would still apply.
- alphonsegaston 10y ago
  #2 Really depends on how bad they want to come after you. There have been cases where non-competes originating out of state have been enforced here in California. I personally wouldn't want to go up against Google's legal team and their war chest.
malandrew 10y ago
It's exactly this type of thinking that lead to the decline of Route 128 in the post-war years and the rise of Silicon Valley. If Google were to do this, they'd be cutting off their nose to spite their face. They could not enforce such a contract with existing employees and all new employees would look at such a provision and join an employer who doesn't do this. The truth is that Google lost this market (or never really had it to begin with). At best they will end up like Microsoft, simply extracting rent via their patent licensing program. For more information about Route 128 vs Silicon Valley, I cannot recommend the book Regional Advantage by AnnaLee Saxenian enough. It's a bit dated and academic, but it's fascinating if you want to understand why the tech industry in and around Boston lost to Silicon Valley despite having a huge head start.
sorenjan 10y ago
Or maybe Google should put out a self driving car product of some kind? They don't seem very business savvy at Google, imagine if they didn't have their ad revenue to fall back on.
dragonwriter 10y ago
> I realize that non-competes are illegal by CA law, but perhaps they should do the engineering in a different state to stop hemorrhaging talent that tries to compete with them? Doing engineering in a different state might make it more problematic to attract talent, as might the non-competes separately. OTOH, maybe Waymo needs to be spun off and be able to offer employees Waymo stock, so it can be a "high-upside startup" option for engineers.
jpatokal 10y ago
I used to work with Mark (CTO). As you can see from his LinkedIn, he worked on various mapping products, but not self-driving cars. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-wheeler-081882/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-wheeler-081882/

by SEJeff 10y ago

andrewfong 10y ago

(1) When most of your existing operations are already in CA, moving to a different state isn't exactly trivial. And if the primary reason you're moving is to enforce a non-compete, I bet it'd make recruitment of the better engineers more difficult. (2) Even if Google did their engineering in another state, let's say the engineer in question then moves to CA. There's a good chance that CA law would still apply.

alphonsegaston 10y ago
#2 Really depends on how bad they want to come after you. There have been cases where non-competes originating out of state have been enforced here in California. I personally wouldn't want to go up against Google's legal team and their war chest.

malandrew 10y ago

It's exactly this type of thinking that lead to the decline of Route 128 in the post-war years and the rise of Silicon Valley. If Google were to do this, they'd be cutting off their nose to spite their face. They could not enforce such a contract with existing employees and all new employees would look at such a provision and join an employer who doesn't do this. The truth is that Google lost this market (or never really had it to begin with). At best they will end up like Microsoft, simply extracting rent via their patent licensing program. For more information about Route 128 vs Silicon Valley, I cannot recommend the book Regional Advantage by AnnaLee Saxenian enough. It's a bit dated and academic, but it's fascinating if you want to understand why the tech industry in and around Boston lost to Silicon Valley despite having a huge head start.

sorenjan 10y ago

Or maybe Google should put out a self driving car product of some kind? They don't seem very business savvy at Google, imagine if they didn't have their ad revenue to fall back on.

dragonwriter 10y ago

> I realize that non-competes are illegal by CA law, but perhaps they should do the engineering in a different state to stop hemorrhaging talent that tries to compete with them? Doing engineering in a different state might make it more problematic to attract talent, as might the non-competes separately. OTOH, maybe Waymo needs to be spun off and be able to offer employees Waymo stock, so it can be a "high-upside startup" option for engineers.

jpatokal 10y ago

I used to work with Mark (CTO). As you can see from his LinkedIn, he worked on various mapping products, but not self-driving cars. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-wheeler-081882/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-wheeler-081882/