Uber must pay Waymo or adapt its self-driving car tech

Uber will likely need to sign a licensing deal with Waymo or change its designs around self-driving cars. This conclusion follows an investigation by a software expert who looked into whether Uber used Waymo’s intellectual property.

In a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Uber describes that the independent software expert recently shared findings that the company describes as “detrimental.” This involves “certain features in our autonomous vehicle software,” according to Uber.

This expert was part of a February 2018 settlement between Waymo and Uber, in which Uber paid $245 million. That settlement was the result of a lawsuit filed by Waymo in 2017, alleging Uber stole technology for self-driving cars.

Hiring the independent software expert was part of the settlement. Uber says the expert’s findings are final, though the company won’t provide other details about these findings. Based on Uber’s report, it appears that at certain points it has used technology that violated Waymo’s intellectual property. That means that license payments to Waymo will presumably follow, or Uber will have to choose to adapt its used technology in parts.

In a statement to Reuters news agency, a Waymo spokesperson said the software expert’s findings reaffirm Waymo’s claims that Uber has unfairly appropriated software intellectual property. Uber declined to provide further details.

Waymo claimed in early 2017 that former Google employee Anthony Levandowski had taken with him a total of 14,000 files when he left in 2016, which would contain much technical data about Google’s sensors. After his departure, Levandowski founded the company Otto, which researched self-driving trucks. That company was subsequently bought back by Uber. Levandowski faced 33 allegations from federal prosecutors in August, all related to theft and attempted theft of trade secrets.