Waymo allegedly found out by being inadvertently cc'd in an email from a supplier that disclosed the Uber circuit board design. I would assume that unnamed company signed a contract in which they promised not to disclose such information and obligated them to indemnify, and perhaps defend, Uber for any damages resulting therefrom. I am interested in seeing how they will play into this as well. I can't imagine the reaction of the email sender when they found out what they had done. Wow.
I can. "Oopsie. Looks like I accidentally attached the rip-off schematic that asshole Kalahnick wants us to build for him on my email to Uber. I better remove that before OOPS I hit send. Silly me!" Let's be honest. If you build LiDAR parts for cars? And Google is one of your customers? And Uber doesn't even bother to think that maybe they're putting you in a keenly untenable position by paying you to make ripoff designs for a competitor? How much soul-searching is involved before you whoopsie your way out of the dilemma?
Perhaps it was someone that brought the situation to the attention of the higher ups who did not care, so was acting as a whistle blower. But I tend to blame most oopsies on mere "incompetence". I have had confidential info sent to me 3 times (in 2 cases it was detrimental to their client) whose careers would be detrimentally effected if it got out.