Last year, after a $250 million settlement, the legal saga between Waymo and Uber came to a close. To ensure the ride-hailing service does not use any Alphabet tech for its self-driving cars, an “independent software expert” has been installed. Uber may now have to license or redesign his vehicles from Waymo to avoid any additional problems.
Uber filed his 10-Q quarterly with the SEC this week (via Reuters) outlining various risks to the business:
In February 2018, we entered into a settlement agreement with Waymo. This agreement resolved Waymo’s claims and provided for certain measures, including the joint retention of an independent software expert, to ensure that our autonomous vehicle hardware and software do not misappropriate Waymo intellectual property.
Uber sees a “final” conclusion from that expert as “adverse” to “certain functions in our autonomous vehicle software.” In 2017, Waymo charged that a startup — founded by ex-Googler Anthony Levandowski — acquired Uber had access to trade secrets and infringed key autonomous patents.
In addition, in August 2019, a federal grand jury indicted Anthony Levandowski, a cofounder of Ottomotto LLC and our former employee, on charges of theft of trade secrets from Waymo.
As a result, Uber has to license and design around the improvements to the Waymo tech. It is not clear whether the Alphabet division would be interested in the former plan, while the latter would take “substantial time and resources to implement.” Essentially, this could “limit or delay our production of autonomous vehicle technologies.”
The Alphabet group tells this in a statement to Reuters, “further confirm Waymo’s allegations that Uber misappropriated our software intellectual property.”
