Otto Co-Founder Lior Ron Returns to Uber to Run Trucking Business

The startup co-founded by Ron triggered a massive legal battle between Uber and Waymo.
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Lior Ron, co-founder of the autonomous-driving startup that triggered a massive legal battle between Uber and Waymo, is back at Uber. He’ll head the company’s Uber Freight logistics business, which Uber is looking to expand.

Ron and co-founder Anthony Levandowski created Otto after leaving Alphabet and sold the startup to Uber in August 2016. Levandowski was subsequently accused of stealing trade secrets from Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving car unit and passing them on to Uber. He was fired for not cooperating with Uber’s efforts to fight a lawsuit from Waymo. Ron left Uber earlier this year, a month after Uber settled the case for $245 million.

According to TechCrunch, Ron’s return is contingent on Uber’s purchase of Otto Trucking, a separate entity from the autonomous-driving division the company acquired in 2016. Uber Freight will then be spun off into a separate company, and Otto Trucking shareholders will get an equity stake in the new entity. Levandowski will reportedly sell his stake to an unnamed venture-capital firm.

Uber recently shut down its self-driving truck program, the most visible product of the 2016 Otto deal. Ron will instead focus on conventional trucking, which Uber views as an important area of investment leading up a planned initial public offering next year, reports Reuters. The news service reports that Uber will double its investment in Freight over the next year.

Uber Freight currently operates as a brokerage service, connecting shipments with drivers willing to haul them anywhere in the continental United States. Drivers can schedule a load through an app, similar to how ride-hailing drivers schedule passengers. Uber claims the logistics division is doubling the number of shipments every quarter.

Stephen Edelstein

Tech Correspondent

Stephen has always been passionate about cars, and managed to turn that passion into a career as a freelance automotive journalist. When he's not covering all things tech for The Drive, you can find him looking for a new book to read.