Waymo and Uber has reached a settlement in their self-driving car case. The announcement came as a big shock, even though I wrote yesterday that Waymo's case was looking oddly weak . Parties are free to settle in the middle of trial (heck, they can settle while the jury is considering a verdict, and they can settle even after the verdict is out) but it's pretty rare. For one thing, it's hard to think about negotiating when you're busy prepping for trial the next day. For another thing, if you were going to settle, you probably should have done it before. It's pretty messy to call off the boxing match in the middle of the third round. Taking any case to trial — let alone such a high-profile case — is messy and exorbitantly expensive, and on top of that, jury verdicts are unpredictable. Sure, by settling now, Uber and Waymo manage to avoid rolling the dice with the jury. But they still spent what was likely millions and millions of dollars on their top-billi...
