Eh. Waymo definitely worries about Uber as a competitor, and in general many people have a distaste for Uber's culture and values.
But there's still a pretty stark line between being a strategic competitor and being a scummy traitor who steals trade secrets and the labor of his coworkers. If it came down to a choice between shutting down Uber's self-driving car program and ruining Levandowski, I'm sure a lot of people would want to choose the latter, even though it's "irrational." Principles are important.
An individual, sure. But Google is too big to take the irrational vindictive option. I have to think they'd let Levandowski off the hook to shut down a competitor like this.
I'd expect the same. But I'd bet a majority of the individual actors, including those making the final decision, would really like to be able to take that vindictive option.
But there's still a pretty stark line between being a strategic competitor and being a scummy traitor who steals trade secrets and the labor of his coworkers. If it came down to a choice between shutting down Uber's self-driving car program and ruining Levandowski, I'm sure a lot of people would want to choose the latter, even though it's "irrational." Principles are important.