Ex-Google executive Anthony Levandowski sent to prison for stealing robocar secrets

A former Google engineer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading to guilty to stealing trade secrets before joining Uber's effort to build robotic vehicles for its ride-hailing service.

The sentence handed down Tuesday by U.S. District Judge William Alsup came more than four months after former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski reached a plea agreement with the federal prosecutors who brought a criminal case against him last August.

Levandowski, who helped steer Google's self-driving car project before landing at Uber, was also ordered to pay more than $850,000.Uber settled its case with Waymo for $245 million a few days into a trial that featured its former CEO, Travis Kalanick, speaking about some of his discussions with Levandowski about the ride-hailing service's desire to win the race to build self-driving cars.