Uber has fired its star autonomous vehicle engineer, Anthony Levandowski, in the midst of its legal issues with Waymo.
Earlier this year, Waymo filed a lawsuit against Uber claiming that it had colluded with former Google employee Levandowski to steal trade secrets in developing its own self-driving technology. Waymo alleges that the engineer stole 14,000 documents from it before forming autonomous truck-start-up Otto which was purchased by Uber for $680 million just six months later.
During the case, Levandowski repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination and two weeks ago, Uber threatened to terminate Levandowski’s employment if he failed to abide by a court order to return any downloaded materials to Waymo. After missing the deadline, he was fired.
In an email to employees, Uber’s associate general counsel for employment and litigation, Angela L. Padilla said “Over the last few months Uber has provided significant evidence to the court to demonstrate that our self-driving technology has been built independently.
“Over that same period, Uber has urged Anthony to fully cooperate in helping the court get to the facts and ultimately helping to prove our case. We take our obligations under the court order very seriously, and so we have chosen to terminate his employment at Uber,” Padilla wrote.
The New York Times reports that Uber was left with little choice but to terminate Levandowski’s employment as it could no longer be seen standing by him following Waymo’s accusations.
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