Amid a bitter trade secrets lawsuit, Uber has fired former star engineer Anthony Levandowski, who headed its self-driving unit, according to a termination letter dated Friday, May 26, which was internally circulated on Tuesday. An Uber spokesperson confirmed Mr. Levandowski’s firing.
Mr. Levandowski, who once worked as a senior engineer for Google’s autonomous vehicles spinoff Waymo, allegedly downloaded 14,000 confidential files from Waymo right before departing and creating his own company, which was acquired by Uber.
Earlier this month, Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled that Mr. Levandowski must return the files to Waymo by May 31 at noon. In Uber’s termination memo to Mr. Levandowski, the ridesharing company cited his failure to return the stolen files among other broken terms of employment as sufficient cause for removal.
Waymo sued Uber Technologies Inc. in February for trade-secret misappropriation, patent infringement and unfair competition related to a proprietary light detection and ranging (lidar) module that Waymo believes Mr. Levandowski had been copying.
Lidar, which is a central sensor in autonomous car perception, may cost up to $75,000 off the shelf, so companies such as Waymo have created their own versions to cut costs. An order May 15 forbade Uber from using any technology related to the navigational tool.
When the judge ordered Mr. Levandowski hand over the confidential files, he invoked his fifth amendment constitutional right against self-incrimination. While Uber has largely been viewed as supportive of Mr. Levandowski, denying the accusations, it could not force him to submit the allegedly stolen files — a move that further hampers Uber in the lawsuit.
In the termination letter, Uber states that Mr. Levandowski’s failure to produce the files “impeded Uber’s internal investigation and defense of the lawsuit.”
The letter also states that under Mr. Levandowski’s Employment Agreement, he should have returned or destroyed all property and confidential information belonging to any prior employer.
An Uber spokesperson confirmed that Mr. Levandowski did not comply with its internal investigation and that he did not meet deadlines that the company had set for him to return confidential files. Uber stated it would not wait for the issue to make its way through court.
The lawsuit will head to trial later this year.
Courtney Linder: clinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1707. Twitter: @LinderPG.
First Published: May 30, 2017, 8:18 p.m.
