Uber vs Waymo: Anthony Levandowski is fired

Amidst the raging battle with Alphabet's self-driving unit, Waymo, Uber has fired Otto co-founder, Anthony Levandowski. first reported by New York Times and was made official to employees through an internal staff email circulated on Tuesday.

Waymo filed a lawsuit against Uber in February alleging that parts of Uber’s autonomous driving technology, specifically LiDAR, infringe on patents held by Waymo. According to Waymo, Otto founder Anthony Levandowski stole 14,000 documents related to trade secrets before leaving to start Otto.

During the court proceedings, Levandowski exercised his Fifth Amendment rights to avoid providing testimony or handing over evidence regarding his use of proprietary data from his time at Google. He had already stepped down as the head of Uber’s self-driving car project but apparently his refusal to comply with his employment requirements at the company, which led to his firing.

Eric Meyhofer will continue leading Uber’s ATG group and take over Levandowski’s direct reports.