|
Uber
said in a federal court filing that 14,000 of Waymo's computer
files on autonomous technology never ended up on its servers,
despite Waymo's claim that its former executive, Anthony
Levandowski, stole them before joining Uber.
Waymo sued Uber in February, seeking a preliminary injunction to
stop it from using trade secrets and other intellectual property
at the center of the case. Waymo said Uber was able to quickly
scale up its autonomous program after Levandowski downloaded the
files before his departure to form a company that Uber then
acquired.
Levandowski leads Uber's self-driving program.
The rivals are vying to bring self-driving cars to the masses in
a field that includes established carmakers, little-known
start-ups and major technology companies.
"The record shows that Uber never possessed - and never used -
any information Mr. Levandowski allegedly took from Waymo," Uber
wrote in its filing.
Levandowski, the central witness in the case, has sought his
Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and will not
testify, over concerns about the possibility of a criminal case
being filed.
Levandowski has not handed over the allegedly stolen documents
and Uber, which has never denied that Levandowski took the
files, claims it cannot force him to do so.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco has ordered
Uber to do a more thorough search of its computer systems to see
if the documents are in its possession. "You haven't searched
well enough," he told Uber's lawyer at a hearing on Wednesday.
Alsup has also suggested that Uber had leverage over Levandowski
it had not used, such as threatening to fire him should he not
hand over the documents.
"If you cannot find them in your files there is going to be a
preliminary injunction. You're not denying it, no one is denying
he has the 14,000 files," Alsup said. "You keep on your payroll
someone who took 14,000 documents and is liable to use them."
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Bernadette Baum and
Richard Chang)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
