Uber self-driving guru in Catch-22
- Autor:Ella Cai
- Solte em:2017-05-16
Uber is allowed to carry on working on self-driving car technology but Waymo’s lawyers can inspect all Uber’s work on LIDAR, ruled Judge William Alsup, in the Waymo-Uber case yesterday.
The judge ordered Uber to return to Waymo the 14,000 files taken from Waymo by former employee Tony Levandowski.
Judge Alsup told Uber to do “whatever it can to ensure that its employees return 14,000-plus pilfered files to their rightful owner.”
This puts Levandowski in a Catch-22 situation because he has pleaded the Fifth Amendment over the theft of the files.
“If Uber were to threaten Levandowski with termination for noncompliance, that threat would be backed up by only Uber’s power as a private employer, and Levandowski would remain free to forfeit his private employment to preserve his Fifth Amendment privilege,” said Judge Alsup.
So Levandowski can either give up his rights under the Fifth Amendment and open himself to a Waymo lawsuit and a criminal charge, or he can stick with the protection afforded by the Fifth and refuse to obey a direction from Uber to hand over the files which risks him getting sacked by Uber.
The judge also ordered that Levandowski should not be allowed to work on LIDAR development at Uber.
“At least some information from Waymo’s files has already found its way into Uber’s Lidar designs,” said the judge.
Waymo’s lawyers had asked that Uber be ordered to stop their driverless development.
To add insult to injury Waymo has now got into bed with Uber rival Lyft to develop self-driving technology.
The judge ordered Uber to return to Waymo the 14,000 files taken from Waymo by former employee Tony Levandowski.
Judge Alsup told Uber to do “whatever it can to ensure that its employees return 14,000-plus pilfered files to their rightful owner.”
This puts Levandowski in a Catch-22 situation because he has pleaded the Fifth Amendment over the theft of the files.
“If Uber were to threaten Levandowski with termination for noncompliance, that threat would be backed up by only Uber’s power as a private employer, and Levandowski would remain free to forfeit his private employment to preserve his Fifth Amendment privilege,” said Judge Alsup.
So Levandowski can either give up his rights under the Fifth Amendment and open himself to a Waymo lawsuit and a criminal charge, or he can stick with the protection afforded by the Fifth and refuse to obey a direction from Uber to hand over the files which risks him getting sacked by Uber.
The judge also ordered that Levandowski should not be allowed to work on LIDAR development at Uber.
“At least some information from Waymo’s files has already found its way into Uber’s Lidar designs,” said the judge.
Waymo’s lawyers had asked that Uber be ordered to stop their driverless development.
To add insult to injury Waymo has now got into bed with Uber rival Lyft to develop self-driving technology.
