Google spent over $1 billion on self-driving technology: Report

San Francisco: Google has been reluctant about sharing how much it spends on self-driving technology but now, the number -- over USD 1 billion -- has been accidentally revealed while reviewing documents in the ongoing legal tussle between Google`s Waymo and Uber.

Google spent a whopping USD 1.1 billion on developing its self-driving software and hardware, says the recent deposition of Shawn Bananzadeh, a financial analyst at Waymo which was first reported by IEEE Spectrum`s Mark Harris.

Bananzadeh was testifying in the ongoing Waymo`s lawsuit against Uber which claims the ride-hailing company stole intellectual property and trade secrets to develop its own autonomous technology.

According to reports, throughout Bananzadeh`s deposition, every dollar amount was redacted to protect Waymo`s confidential commercial information. 

Waymo has patented a technology that will make its self-driving cars soft on the outside if it comes across a situation where there is a possibility of an accident with a human.

Self-driving vehicles constantly communicate with one another to prevent crashes but this is the first time that an industry player came out with a solution to save pedestrians from accident.

Last month, the legal tussle between ride-hailing company Uber and Google`s parent company Alphabet escalated when the court allowed Uber to seek deposition of Alphabet CEO Larry Page for up to four hours.

Waymo filed a lawsuit against Uber earlier in 2017, alleging that the stolen information became the technological basis for the company`s self-driving cars.