Waymo Alleges Patent Infringement, Wants Courts To Put A Stop On Uber's Otto
Waymo, Google’s self-driving car company, wants a federal court to put the brakes on Uber developing autonomous car technology. Waymo alleges former Google manager Anthony Levandowski took circuit board designs from Waymo’s light detection and ranging system prior to leaving the company to create Otto, now owned by Uber, San Francisco Business Times reports.
Waymo provided statements in a filing submitted March 10 from Levandowski’s former colleague and co-founder Pierre-Yvez Droz and expert witness statements from a laser-optics physicist that helped support Waymo’s claims. It also added a fourth patent infringement claim. In his statement, Droz said Levandowski shared his plans to replicate long-range lidar technology at Waymo when he launched the startup.
Waymo sued Uber at the end of February asking the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to bar Uber from using the technology named in the lawsuit; the Google subsidiary is seeking damages for infringement claims.
Uber recently applied for permits from the California DMV to test self-driving cars on California roads. Uber has been testing self-driving cars in Pennsylvania and Arizona. It previously launched a pilot program in California, but moved its testing to Arizona amid criticism that it did not have the right permits from the California DMV.
