Uber: Discovery shows Waymo has “zero evidence,” plays blame game

Enlarge / Former Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski, at right, at a transportation conference in 2016. (credit: John Sommers II for Transport Topics)

Documents filed in the Waymo v. Uber litigation yesterday laid out in the starkest terms yet where each side stands.

After extraordinary amounts of discovery, Waymo hasn't found the 14,000 files its says were downloaded from Google, Waymo's parent company—but Waymo still says communications between Levandowski and his co-workers at Uber indicate a "coverup." Uber, meanwhile, says that Waymo has scoured its work facilities and deposed its employees, but still "can't deliver"—because the secret files Waymo is looking for never got to Uber.

Waymo sued Uber back in February, claiming that the company had acquired Waymo trade secrets. Uber's then-chief of self-driving car research, Anthony Levandowski, had downloaded more than 14,000 files before leaving Google without notice in January 2016, Waymo said. Uber doesn't deny that took place, and Levandowski clammed up, pleading the Fifth Amendment and refusing to answer questions.