Tech giants battle it out
Ride-sharing firm Uber and Google’s Waymo are set to face each other in court over accusations of ‘trade secret’ self-driving car technology theft.
According to the BBC, the case which is set for a San Francisco court, will see the judge consider granting a preliminary injunction that would force Uber to immediately suspend use of the technology while legal proceedings were continuing.
Waymo’s extraordinary lawsuit, filed in February, accused a former employee of downloading 14,000 documents relating to LiDAR. That employee, Anthony Levandowski, then went on to found Otto, a self-driving truck company later acquired by Uber for $680m.
Waymo said it was alerted to the possible infringement after being mistakenly copied into an email from one of Uber’s suppliers.
Uber denies any wrongdoing and has described Waymo’s lawsuit as a ‘misfire’. However, the company has not been able to search the personal devices of Mr Levandowski, who has invoked his Fifth Amendment rights – a constitutional clause that allows US citizens to resist any request to share information that could put them at risk of self-incrimination.
