Uber on Tuesday fired an engineer who was accused of stealing trade secrets from Google’s self-driving car subsidiary before jumping to Uber.
In a letter to Anthony Levandowski, Uber said that it was terminating him for failing to comply with a federal judge’s order earlier in the month. Levandowski had declined the court’s request to hand over any evidence, citing his Fifth Amendment rights.
Uber also said Levandowski failed to adhere to Uber’s own directives to cooperate with the court. A company spokesperson said Uber had pushed him to comply with its own internal investigations, to no avail.
“In your Employment Agreement, you represented and warranted that ‘you have returned or destroyed all property and confidential information belonging to any prior employer,’ ” Uber’s letter read.
{mosads}“Your failure to comply with the Letter gives Uber grounds to allege a breach of the representation and warranty in your employment agreement, and constitutes an additional ground for termination with Cause,” the letter continued.
The former top Uber engineer can reverse his termination if he complies with Uber’s demands within 20 days.
Google’s self-driving car subsidiary, Waymo, alleged that Levandowski stole about 14,000 documents — including trade secrets — before leaving to start a self-driving truck company called Otto. Uber later acquired Otto, gaining access to the files.
The documents allegedly detail advancements Waymo had made with light detection and and ranging (LIDAR) technology — a radar system that most self-driving car companies use to help their vehicles pilot themselves. Waymo contends that with the files, Uber was able to unfairly and illegally advance its own LIDAR technology without having to spend resources.
Uber has maintained that it did not steal any of Waymo’s self-driving car technology.
Eric Meyerhoff will continue to lead Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, which heads up the company’s autonomous vehicle technology development. Levandowski had previously led the group but stepped down after the suit started.