Yesterday, news came out about Waymo's decision to file a lawsuit against Uber and Otto. Waymo is Google's child company while Otto is a startup business that Uber bought last year. All three of these companies are focusing on the self-driving car industry and as per Waymo's accusations, Uber has stolen trade secrets from them. In a detailed post by Waymo, the company revealed several things that expledain how Google-owned technologies have reached the premises of Otto and Uber. Now, the accused party has released its statement, and they are denying the accusations that Waymo has shared to the media.
Waymo's Accusations Against Uber
To cut to the chase, an ex-Waymo engineer named Anthony Levandowski has started his own company and named it Otto. Otto was then bought by Uber just a few months from the former's founding. Ultimately, Levandowski was named one of the top-rank executives of Uber. The lawsuit that Waymo has filed against the two companies revolves around the accusation that Levandowski had inappropriately acquired confidential files from Waymo's server and used it in Uber's self-driving car project. It was said that the former employee used Google's LiDAR technology on his own project with Uber.
Uber's Response To Waymo's Accusations
Unsurprisingly, Uber denied Waymo's accusations of theft. As per the company's statement, they said that they have reviewed the claims and were able to come to the conclusion that Waymo's lawsuit was a baseless attempt to slow down a rival. Uber also said that they look forward to defending themselves in court.
With a simple response like that, Uber is yet to address the specific accusations that Waymo has dropped in its post. This includes Uber's LiDAR system that Waymo described to have a "striking resemblance" to what the Google-owned company has in its own backyard. Additionally, Uber and Levandowski are also yet to respond to Waymo's claims about the former Google employee's act of theft in downloading the 9.7 GB worth of confidential files using the company-provided computer.
