Uber Fires Anthony Levandowski After Not Cooperating in Waymo Lawsuit
Levandowski pleaded the Fifth in the Waymo court case. That might’ve cost him his job.
Uber has dropped its vice president of technology, Anthony Levandowski, after he failed to cooperate in a lawsuit involving the tech company and Alphabet's Waymo, according to the New York Times.
The report said that Levandowski's leave, which began Tuesday, was announced in an internal email sent to employees the same day.
The engineer was one of the people at the lead of Uber's self-driving car project and was a key factor in a lawsuit with Alphabet. In the court case, Waymo alleged that Uber took trade secrets by hiring
Levandowski, a former Google engineer.
Uber said in the case that Waymo's claims were false, but when Levandowski was asked to bring forward evidence and a testimony by a federal judge, the engineer pleaded the Fifth Amendment. Uber seemingly couldn't convince him to do otherwise.
“Over the last few months Uber has provided significant evidence to the court to demonstrate that our self-driving technology has been built independently,” said Uber associate general counsel for employment Angela Padilla in an internal email, according to NYT. “Over that same period, Uber has urged Anthony to fully cooperate in helping the court get to the facts and ultimately helping to prove our case.”
MORE TO READ
Related
Researchers Claim to Have Found a Cheaper Way to Make Hydrogen
Which could be a big boost for fuel-cell cars.
Related
The Truck That Got Away: My Jeep Comanche Sob Story
We had high hopes for our Jeep Comanche project, but we bit off more than we could chew.
Related
Waymo’s Lawsuit Against Uber Going to Federal Prosecutors
The judge presiding over Waymo’s lawsuit against Uber asked federal prosecutors to investigate the claims in the case.
Related
Waymo’s Self-Driving Cars Are Clocking in Miles Quicker than Ever
Alphabet’s autonomous vehicles now have more than three million miles on the clock.
Related