Uber Hit With Lawsuit Claiming It Stole Waymo’s Autonomous Car Technology
Alphabet’s Waymo filed a lawsuit Thursday against Uber, claiming several employees stole driverless car patents and trade secrets when they left the company and ultimately brought them to Uber.
Last year, several high-level engineers left Google’s former self-driving car project to form their own companies. Alphabet claims it recently realized Uber is using the same laser Lidar technology developed by Waymo, Forbes reports.
The suit centers on Anthony Levandowski, the current head of Uber’s automated vehicle research team. Levandowski is co-founder of self-driving technology firm Otto (now owned by Uber) and a previous member of Google’s driverless car team. Waymo alleges Levandowski downloaded over 14,000 confidential design files before wiping the computer and seeks an injunction preventing Uber from using any trade secrets.
