Waymo Claims Uber Hid LiDAR System That Used Its Tech

As Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving division continues to hunt down Uber for the

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by Brad Anderson

April 24, 2017 at 02:30

As Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving division continues to hunt down Uber for the alleged theft and use of trade secrets, the company has hit out at Uber once again in a new set of court documents.

Waymo claims that Uber hid a LiDAR device which was developed by former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski based on its technology. This comes after the previous assertion that Levandowski downloaded 9.7 GB of confidential material from Google before leaving the company and founding self-driving truck company Otto. Soon after its formation, Otto was purchased by Uber for $680 million.

Waymo says it was only given access to the LiDAR device during the ongoing investigation after an Uber engineer admitted its existence.

However, spokesperson from the ride-hailing firm, Matt Kallman, says that the LiDAR system was made available to Waymo from the very start and that it could have been photographed as part of the information sharing ordered by the court, Bloomberg reports.

Waymo hopes this latest move will convince a judge to ban Levandowski from working on Uber’s ongoing autonomous car project.