The Mercury News Weekend

Uber says it may have to pay Waymo for its self-driving car technology

Ride-hailing firm acknowledg­es that it is still using the autonomous company’s tech

- By Rex Crum rcrum@bayareanew­sgroup.com

It appears that Uber is going to be dealing with the after-effects of its self-driving car technology trade secrets suit with Waymo for some time to come.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Uber said that it “will likely” have to either enter a licensing deal with Google’s Waymo, or make some highpriced changes to its autonomous driving software, after an independen­t software expert found Uber to still be using some Waymo technology after the two companies reached a legal settlement to their case in February 2018.

As part of that deal, Uber agreed to have an independen­t software expert examine Uber’s work to ensure that it didn’t include the use of Waymo’s intellectu­al property. However, in its SEC filing Uber said that the software expert found the company was still using Waymo technology, and that the situation could have an impact on its self- driving car efforts.

“These findings, which are final, will likely result in a license fee or in design changes that could require substantia­l time and resources to implement,” Uber said. “And could limit or delay our production of autonomous vehicle technologi­es.”

When reached for further comment, Uber said it had nothing to add about the matter beyond what it said in its SEC filing.

Waymo, however, said the independen­t expert’s findings “further confirm Waymo’s allegation­s that Uber misappropr­iated our software IP (intellectu­al property)” and that it would “continue to take the necessary steps to ensure our confidenti­al informatio­n is not being used by Uber.”

That case centered around former Waymo engineer Anthony Levandowsk­i, who was a founder of Waymo’s self-driving car efforts. Levandowsk­i left Google, founded his own self-driving truck start up, Otto, then went to work at Uber when he sold Otto to the ride-hailing giant for $680 million in 2016. Waymo accused Levandowsk­i with taking proprietar­y files related self-driving technology with him to Uber, which the company used to develop its own autonomous- driving program. In August Levandowsk­i pleaded not guilty to federal charges of stealing trade secrets.

 ?? DAVID MCNEW — AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES ?? Uber agreed to have an independen­t software expert examine Uber’s work to ensure that it didn’t include the use of Waymo’s intellectu­al property.
DAVID MCNEW — AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES Uber agreed to have an independen­t software expert examine Uber’s work to ensure that it didn’t include the use of Waymo’s intellectu­al property.

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