Self-driving vehicle case takes a turn

The lawsuit over self-driving car technology involving Uber and Alphabet — Google’s parent firm — has taken a strange turn.

Uber now says that nobody at the ride-hailing company knew about any alleged theft of intellectual property from Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car department, before Waymo sued Uber over the issue. That contradicts accusations by Alphabet that Uber “took part in a cover-up.”

In a court filing last week, Uber said the lawsuit by Waymo was the first time that executives learned of the reported misconduct by Anthony Levandowski, a former Alphabet engineer. Levandowski later went to work for Uber — but not before Waymo says he downloaded thousands of trade secrets pertaining to Waymo’s self-driving cars.

“Waymo’s allegations in this lawsuit, and subsequent presentation of evidence of Levandowski’s downloading, was the first time that anyone at Uber learned that Levandowski may have engaged in improper downloading and theft of Google information as alleged by Waymo,” according to Uber’s filing.

The lawsuit holds big stakes for both companies as they battle against each other and firms such as Apple, Tesla and Ford for dominance.

Both sides are homing in on what transpired in key conversations between Levandowski and senior Uber officials last spring. At the time, Levandowski had not yet joined Uber but had left Waymo and was leading an autonomous trucking firm, Otto, that Uber soon would acquire.

Levandowski approached Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick and several other executives to say he had five discs of Waymo information in his home. Kalanick instructed Levandowski not to take the discs to Uber, court documents say. But the interaction, according to Waymo, is enough to show Uber’s awareness of Levandowski’s theft.