Uber in U.S. court
reckoning on possible shutdown of self-driving program
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[May 03, 2017]
By Heather Somerville and Dan Levine
SAN
FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] goes before a U.S.
judge on Wednesday to fight for the right to continue work on its
self-driving car program, the latest phase in a courtroom battle over
trade secrets that threatens to topple a central pillar of Uber's growth
strategy.
The ride-services company is contesting a lawsuit by Alphabet Inc's
self-driving car unit, Waymo, which accused former Waymo engineer and
current Uber executive Anthony Levandowski of taking technical secrets
from Waymo and using them to help Uber's self-driving car development.
If it were proven that Levandowski and Uber conspired in taking the
information, that could have dire consequences for Uber, say legal and
ride-hailing industry experts. Uber's $68 billion valuation is propped
up in part by investors' belief it will be a dominant player in the
emerging business of self-driving cars.
At issue on Wednesday is Waymo's demand that U.S. District Court Judge
William Alsup in San Francisco issue an injunction barring Uber from
using any of the technology that Waymo said was stolen. If Alsup issues
a broadly worded order against Uber, it could all but shut down Uber's
self-driving car program while court proceedings continue.
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Alsup is not expected to rule immediately on Wednesday, but he may
intimate which way he is leaning. At a hearing last month, Alsup warned
Uber that it may face an injunction, saying of the evidence amassed by
Waymo: "I've never seen a record this strong in 42 years."
Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick has said that autonomous
vehicles, though still in their infancy, are critical to the company's
long-term success and future growth.
Indeed, autonomous cars promise to change the economics of the
ride-hailing business. Among Uber's biggest expenses is the cost of
attracting drivers, who have a high turnover rate. And Uber's ability to
expand into suburban and rural markets, and areas with low vehicle
ownership, and continue to offer a ride within three minutes, largely
hinges on the availability of a network of self-driving vehicles.
"This is central to Uber," said Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New
York University and author of the book "The Sharing Economy," noting
that Uber has more at stake than some of its rivals.
"If Google can't launch their self-driving car for 10 years instead of
five, this will be a little blip in Google's multibillion-dollar
revenue. Uber is the one that really depends on it."
Uber has faced a string of setbacks in recent months, including
allegations of sexual harassment from a former employee and the public
release of a video of Kalanick berating an Uber driver. The company,
though still growing strongly, is losing hundreds of millions of dollars
a quarter, according to information the company released last month.
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![](../images/050317pics/busine32.jpg)
A Uber sign is seen during a news conference in Taipei, Taiwan April
13, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
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"Any
big setback here would likely hit its valuation hard," said Jan Dawson, an Uber
analyst with Jackdaw Research. A blanket ban on Uber's autonomous efforts "would
certainly stall its efforts for a while and put it even further behind Waymo and
others."
Uber
has self-driving tests underway in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Arizona. It
started work on the technology six years after Google began.
Other industry watchers say that Uber, which has deep pockets and other value
propositions such as huge swaths of traffic and rider data, could ride out a
negative ruling in the Waymo case.
The Waymo lawsuit, filed in February, revolves around a laser-based technology
called Lidar that allows cars to "see" their surroundings and detect the
location of other cars and pedestrians.
Waymo said Levandowski, who until last week was head of Uber's self-driving car
program, stole more than 14,000 confidential documents before leaving his job at
Waymo in January 2016. He formed a self-driving truck startup, Otto, which Uber
bought in August for $680 million.
Uber
has said Waymo's claims are false, and in a court filing called the preliminary
injunction motion "a misfire." Uber has not denied Levandowski took files from
Waymo, but said it never possessed any of the confidential information that
Waymo accused Levandowski of stealing.
Levandowski himself has invoked his constitutional right against
self-incrimination because of the possibility of a future criminal probe. And
last week, Levandowski said in an email to Uber employees he would stay at Uber
but was stepping down from his work on Lidar.
"You're left to assume the worst," said Elizabeth Rowe, an intellectual property
professor at University of Florida Levin College of Law.
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In a deposition of Levandowski last month, attorneys for Waymo also probed
Levandowski about Kalanick, whether the CEO encouraged him to take Waymo's
confidential material, according to a court transcript. Levandowski invoked the
Fifth Amendment.
A spokesman for Uber declined to comment on the deposition.
(Reporting by Heather Somerville and Dan Levine in San Francisco.; Editing by
Jonathan Weber and Grant McCool)
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