Tech: A judge just barred Uber's former head of self-driving cars from lidar-related work

Anthony Levandowski can no longer work on lidar-related work at Uber.

Judge William Alsup's order makes official a move that Uber had already made when it preemptively demoted Levandowski from leading its self-driving-car project and barred him from working on lidar.

Waymo sued Uber earlier this year, accusing Uber of stealing trade secrets and intellectual property it had developed related to lidar, the radar-like sensors that self-driving cars use to navigate. Waymo says that Levandowski downloaded 14,000 files before he left Google's self-driving car project, which later became Waymo, and took the files to Uber to jump-start its nascent self-driving car efforts.

"To repeat, as far as the record shows, Levandowski remains in possession of over 14,000 confidential files from Waymo, at least some of which likely contain Waymo’s trade secrets," Alsup wrote. "Misuse of that treasure trove remains an ever-present danger wholly at his whim."

Waymo had initially made a larger bid to stop Uber's self-driving-car research, claiming that the company was infringing on its patents and trade secrets. The judge did not order Uber to stop any of its research, however, other than not allowing Levandowski or any other Uber employee from using or consulting the allegedly stolen files.

While Alsup's order is the third blow to Uber in the week, it is by far the lightest.

Last week, Alsup dismissed Uber's bid to send the case out of the public's eye and denied its motion to compel arbitration. Instead, the judge referred it to the US attorney for a possible criminal investigation, an escalation in a case that has already pitted two of Silicon Valley's heavyweights against each other.

"We are pleased with the court's ruling that Uber can continue building and utilizing all of its self-driving technology, including our innovation around LiDAR," an Uber representative said. "We look forward to moving toward trial and continuing to demonstrate that our technology has been built independently from the ground up."

Here's how the judge summarized the case so far:

"By way of summary, this order finds plaintiff Waymo LLC has shown compelling evidence that its former star engineer, Anthony Levandowski, downloaded over 14,000 confidential files from Waymo immediately before leaving his employment there. The evidence shows that, both before and after his departure, Levandowski and defendant Uber Technologies, Inc., planned for Uber to acquire Levandowski's new companies, defendants Ottomotto LLC and Otto Trucking LLC, and to hire Levandowski as the head of its self-driving car efforts. Moreover, defendants and Levandowski anticipated and took steps to defend against litigation with Waymo in connection with his move to Uber. Significantly, the evidence indicates that, during the acquisition, Uber likely knew or at least should have known that Levandowski had taken and retained possession of Waymo's confidential files. Waymo has also sufficiently shown, for purposes of the instant motion only, that the 14,000-plus purloined files likely contain at least some trade secrets, and that some provisional relief is warranted while this case progresses toward trial. The scope of relief warranted at this stage, however, is limited by several countervailing factors."

As part of the order, Uber is ordered to hand over the 14,000 documents to Waymo by May 31.

"Competition should be fueled by innovation in the labs and on the roads, not through unlawful actions. We welcome the order to prohibit Uber's use of stolen documents containing trade secrets developed by Waymo through years of research, and to formally bar Mr Levandowski from working on the technology," a Waymo spokesperson said. "The court has also granted Waymo expedited discovery and we will use this to further protect our work and hold Uber fully responsible for its misconduct."

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Anthony Levandowski can no longer work on lidar-related work at Uber. Read Full Story