特斯拉撤回了对其Autopilot团队前项目经理斯特林·安德森（Sterling Anderson）以及他与谷歌前高管克里斯·厄姆森（Chris Urmson）共同创建的公司Aurora Innovation提起的严厉诉讼。

根据和解协议，极光将向特斯拉支付10万美元（对于特斯拉这样一家价值10亿美元的公司来说，这只是微不足道的一笔钱），并允许特斯拉聘请一名独立审计师，在极光的系统中搜寻特斯拉的机密信息，这些信息随后将被销毁或返还给特斯拉。Aurora将聘请自己的审计师来搜索相同的信息，并将这些信息提供给特斯拉。安德森在媒体上的一篇文章中表示，10万美元的付款是为了支付特斯拉的审计费用。

安德森和奥罗拉还将继续遵守安德森与特斯拉现有的不招揽协议，并承诺不会招揽特斯拉的员工或承包商离开该公司一年。

尽管粗略地看一下，特斯拉从最初的诉讼文件（特斯拉在声明中声称的东西）中得到了大部分想要的东西，但有两件事很突出：

首先，考虑到特斯拉指控安德森窃取特斯拉的机密信息并销毁证据掩盖他的行踪，以及试图挖走他的新企业的一些员工，10万美元不是一大笔易手的钱。第二，和解条款不包括在保密条款中，这是许多诉讼和解的共同要求。

如果特斯拉对安德森、被盗文件和偷猎员工的指控是完全准确的话，人们会奇怪为什么公司会为了这么小的一笔钱撤销诉讼。

即便如此，两家公司都声称自己获胜。以下是特斯拉的观点：

Tesla’s lawsuit against Mr. Anderson, Mr. Urmson, and Aurora has been settled. Under the settlement, Mr. Anderson’s contractual obligati*** to Tesla will remain in place and will also be extended to Aurora, with additional specific protecti*** being added to ensure there are no further violati***. The settlement also establishes a process to allow Tesla to recover all of the proprietary information that was taken from the company, and it provides for Aurora’s computer systems to be subject to ongoing audits to monitor for any improper retention or use of Tesla’s property. Finally, $100,000 was paid to Tesla.

极光发言人发表的声明反映了公司对这种情况的截然不同看法：

Delivering on a lofty vision is hard; in late January 2017 it got harder. Tesla filed a meritless lawsuit against us, supported by an aggressive public relati*** effort. Disappointed, but determined to defend our integrity, we immediately commissioned a comprehensive forensics audit that proved what we already knew to be true: (1) no material Tesla confidential information exists on our personal computers or company systems, and (2) there is no evidence that anyone at Aurora has used or has access to Tesla confidential information.

Today, less than three months after filing (and even before we were permitted to file a resp***e) Tesla has withdrawn its claims, without damages, without attorney’s fees, and without any finding of wrongdoing. We have even agreed to reimburse the cost of a future audit to dem***trate the integrity of Aurora’s intellectual property.

In spite of this distraction, we’ve made great progress this last few months and are excited to now focus all of our energy on making transportation safer and better for all. We’ve been developing self-driving vehicles since long before it was trendy, and remain committed to bringing this important technology to market with the right team, doing things the right way.

极光仍处于秘密状态，由于不再被起诉，以后可能会有更多的信息可以分享。