Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Cars
  3. News

Uber extends an olive branch to Waymo as it settles trade secret lawsuit

By

Uber Waymo lawsuit
Image used with permission by copyright holder
One of the greatest tech lawsuits of the 21st century has come to a close. Ridesharing giant Uber recently reached a settlement deal with Waymo, Google’s sister company in charge of developing autonomous technology for cars. Waymo sued Uber a year ago to prove its rival stole intellectual property through one of its employees, Anthony Levandowski.

CNBC reports Uber agreed to pay Waymo a 0.34-percent equity stake. Investors value Uber at about $72 billion, meaning Waymo will receive approximately $245 million. The decision ends a year-old legal conflict that could have lasted for many more months.

Recommended Videos

Uber proposed the settlement to end the costly and time-consuming lawsuit and avoid a potentially embarrassing jury verdict. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stressed it’s not an admission of wrongdoing, though he regrets how his predecessors (namely founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick) handled the lawsuit.

Related

“We agree that Uber’s acquisition of Otto could and should have been handled differently,” he wrote, addressing Alphabet and referring to the company Levandowski founded. “We do not believe that any trade secrets made their way from Waymo to Uber, nor do we believe that Uber has used any of Waymo’s proprietary information in its self-driving technology.”

The lawsuit focused on 14,000 digital files Levandowski allegedly downloaded before leaving his position at Google in January 2016. He founded Otto the following May and sold the company to Uber in August. Waymo’s lawyers argued it was a clever cover-up to poach Levandowski; Uber planned on buying Otto — along with Waymo’s allegedly stolen files — before the firm even existed.

“While I cannot erase the past, I can commit, on behalf of every Uber employee, that we will learn from it,” Khosrowshahi concluded.

With the lawsuit behind it, Uber will continue to work on developing and deploying its self-driving technology. Its reputation has taken a hit but it remains one of the leaders in the field. The ride-sharing firm operates pilot programs in Pennsylvania and in Arizona, and its fleet of over 200 self-driving prototypes has racked up more than two million miles on public roads. Last year, Uber pledged to purchase “tens of thousands” of Volvo SUVs between 2019 and 2021 and convert them into autonomous cars.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon
Contributor
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
Tesla to begin production on new, more affordable models
Tesla Model 3

With competition increasing from Chinese and other automakers, Tesla boss Elon Musk revealed on Tuesday that his company is planning to begin production of new, more affordable models in “early 2025, if not late this year.” Notably, that's earlier than the previously stated date of late 2025, though whether Musk actually succeeds in meeting the earlier production time frame is another question entirely.

The news came as Tesla released its latest quarterly figures. Revenue for the electric vehicle maker came in at $21.3 billion, down from the $23.3 billion it reported for the same three-month period a year earlier and also down from the $25.2 billion reported in the previous quarter. Profit reached $1.1 billion, marking a 55% fall compared to the same period a year ago.

Read more
Mercedes G580 electrifies an off-road icon
Mercedes-Benz G580 with EQ Technology front quarter.

The Mercedes-Benz G-Class is Germany’s answer to Jeep, Hummer, and Land Rover. Combining traditional Mercedes luxury with serious off-road capability, the G-Class, or Geländewagen, as it’s formally known, is right at home on the trail or the valet stand. And now it’s going electric.

Mercedes has been teasing an electric G-Class since 2021, and now it’s finally arrived in the form of the G580 with EQ Technology. Expected to go on sale in the U.S.as a 2025 model alongside refreshed gasoline G-Class variants, it uses electric powertrain tech to update a classic design and enhance off-road capability.

Read more
Lamborghini’s Urus SE plug-in hybrid tries to do it all
Lamborghini Urus SE front quarter.

Lamborghini built its reputation with outrageous supercars like the Miura, Countach, and Diablo, but today its bestseller is the Urus SUV. And a new plug-in hybrid version of that car could make or break the automaker’s push to hybridize its entire lineup by the end of 2024.

Debuting at the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, the Lamborghini Urus SE is the automaker’s second plug-in hybrid, following the Revuelto supercar unveiled in 2023, and precedes a plug-in hybrid replacement for the Huracán, which will be unveiled later this year.

Read more