Uber Threatens to Fire Star Engineer in Legal Battle Over Driverless Cars -
By MIKE ISAACMAY 19, 2017
SAN FRANCISCO — Uber has signaled that it might break up with the star engineer who led its driverless car efforts, as the company seeks to disentangle itself from a high-stakes lawsuit
that could affect its future in self-driving vehicles.
To comply with a court order, Uber’s top lawyer told the engineer, Anthony Levandowski, in a letter
that if he did not comply with the lawsuit, he could face “adverse employment action,” which may include the loss of his job, according to a court filing on Thursday.
The letter from Uber orders Mr. Levandowski, who oversees most of Uber’s autonomous vehicle research efforts, to comply with the court’s
investigation into the more than 9.7 gigabytes of data Waymo has accused him of stealing, or else face consequences like losing his job.
Waymo has accused Uber of conspiring with Mr. Levandowki, a former Google engineer,
to steal trade secrets from Google for Uber’s autonomous vehicle designs.
Mr. Levandowski has been close to Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick, who wooed the engineer to join the ride-hailing company
and purchased Otto, the start-up Mr. Levandowski formed after leaving Google, for nearly $700 million last year.
“While we have respected your personal liberties, it is our view
that the court’s order requires us to make these demands of you,” Salle Yoo, Uber’s general counsel, said in the letter.
