The crowd has spoken and wants the original exception, not nested.

Author: nirvdrum

java/client/src/org/openqa/selenium/remote/RemoteWebDriver.java

@@ -112,26 +112,26 @@ public RemoteWebDriver(CommandExecutor executor, Capabilities desiredCapabilitie
 
     try {
       startClient();
-    } catch (Exception e) {
+    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
       try {
         stopClient();
       } catch (Exception ignored) {
         // Ignore the clean-up exception. We'll propagate the original failure.
       }
 
-      throw new WebDriverException("Failed to start client.", e);
+      throw e;
     }
 
     try {
       startSession(desiredCapabilities, requiredCapabilities);
-    } catch (Exception e) {
+    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
       try {
         quit();
       } catch (Exception ignored) {
         // Ignore the clean-up exception. We'll propagate the original failure.
       }
 
-      throw new WebDriverException("Failed to start session.", e);
+      throw e;
     }
   }
 

java/server/test/org/openqa/selenium/remote/server/RemoteWebDriverTest.java

@@ -99,8 +99,8 @@ public void testStopsClientIfStartClientFails() {
                                         remote.getCapabilities(),
                                         remote.getCapabilities(),
                                         stopCalled);
-    } catch (WebDriverException e) {
-      assertTrue(e.getMessage().contains("Failed to start client."));
+    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+      assertTrue(e.getMessage().contains("Stub client that should fail"));
 
       exceptionThrown = true;
     }
@@ -123,8 +123,8 @@ public void testQuitsIfStartSessionFails() {
       new BadStartSessionRemoteWebDriver(remote.getCommandExecutor(),
                                         remote.getCapabilities(),
                                         remote.getCapabilities());
-    } catch (WebDriverException e) {
-      assertTrue(e.getMessage().contains("Failed to start session."));
+    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+      assertTrue(e.getMessage().contains("Stub session that should fail"));
 
       exceptionThrown = true;
     }