Uber warns employee who ‘stole’ technology

NEW YORK: Cab-hailing app Uber has warned an engineer who allegedly stole trade secrets and self-driving car technology from Google parent company Alphabet’s unit Waymo to comply with court orders or risk being fired.

Uber issued a warning letter to Anthony Levandowski, saying it would take “adverse employment action against” him if he fails to comply the court’s orders, TechCrunch reported on Saturday.

This came after Waymo argued that discovery in the case has been held up by Levandowski refusing to answer questions related to the alleged theft of proprietary data.

“Levandowski has repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment in the case, citing the potential for criminal action that could lead to self-incrimination,” the report said.

Last week, a judge ordered that Uber “exercise the full extent of (its) corporate, employment, contractual and other authority” to force Levandowski to return any downloaded materials to Waymo.

Following that, Uber sent a letter to Levandowski giving him a choice between “deny(ing) ever having taken any downloaded materials from Google” or hand over any materials he might have taken from Google. If he failed to comply, he would risk termination of his employment. Google’s self-driving car company Waymo in February filed a lawsuit against Uber for allegedly stealing trade secrets and technology from it. — IANS