Uber forced to show acquisition document to Waymo over alleged theft

Uber has to hand over a document from the court in the American city of San Francisco that contains the details of the acquisition of start-up Otto. That start-up belongs to a former Google employee who, according to Google sister company Waymo, stole 14,000 documents.

Those documents would explain how Google’s lidar system, a laser system for self-driving cars, works. Uber had previously voluntarily withdrawn Levendowski from the project group developing lidar. This is a laser sensor system that it took Waymo seven years to develop; Uber did that in nine months.

Uber is now required to show Waymo a document related to the Otto acquisition. That says a judge who was able to see the document behind closed doors, according to financial news agency Bloomberg. According to Waymo, the document shows that Uber acquired the company while it knew about the stolen documents.

The former Google employee is no longer allowed to work on lidar technology within Uber. Uber paid $680 million for Otto last year. Waymo sued Uber in February over its acquisition of Otto and the documents.