Judge says Waymo has yet to offer “smoking gun” that Uber knew of stolen docs after Waymo said Levandowski made deal with Uber, took 9.7GB data
valued at $250M— the day after he left Google. Biz Carson / @bizcarson : Uber spox now says stock grant was back-dated from acquisition. Uber lawyers haven't addressed it though in court http://read.bi/2p995rJ Alexei Oreskovic / @lexnfx : Google accused Uber of creating a shell company with its former engineer in order to steal http://read.bi/2p995rJ via @sai tip @techmeme Ina Fried / @inafried : Whoa: Waymo produces document showing Levandowski got more than 5 million shares of Uber stock that vested the day after he left Google Dave Lee / @daveleebbc : Waymo essentially suggesting the setting up of Otto, and subsequent acquisition by Uber, was essentially all a ruse. Biz Carson / @bizcarson : Uber says they'll let Waymo depose @travisk to prove their claims: “No one is hiding at Uber” Dan Levine / @fedcourtjunkie : Waymo atty: Uber hasn't yet turned over any evidence showing Uber knew Levandowski downloaded Waymo documents @mikeisaac : “Uber realized at some point that mr. levandowski was radioactive. They found that out in due diligence.” — Alsup, on AL @mikeisaac : Woof. Alsup, to Waymo Lawyer: “You have one of the strongest records ive seen of somebody doing something bad. Good for you.” Carolyn Said / @csaid : Judge: Do u dispute Levandowski downloaded 14k files? Uber atty: We don't have any basis for disputing that @mikeisaac : It's pretty fascinating that at this point everyone is essentially acknowledging that Levandowski stole the information from Waymo. Dave Lee / @daveleebbc : Waymo: “Mr L and Uber were planning, while he was still at Waymo, a deal whereby Mr L would take the knowledge he had” and work for Uber. Dan Levine / @fedcourtjunkie : Waymo cites document showing Uber promised Levandowski over 5 mln Uber shares days after Levandowski left Waymo Dan Primack / @danprimack : Somewhere a truck driver is reading about Waymo v. Uber and thinking: “No matter who wins, I still lose. Right?” @mikeisaac : Waymo lawyer complaining about how Uber and AL have blocked Waymo from seeing 3,500 emails/docs. Alsup prob sympathetic to this. @mikeisaac : Uber's laywer, Arturo Gonzalez, has woken me and the rest of the courtroom up. He flaring up and it's fun to watch Dave Lee / @daveleebbc : Uber now sharing details of Fuji, the Lidar system it was developing itself. Making the case that none of Waymo's tech is in there. @mikeisaac : now they're pointing out a bunch of LiDar component parts sitting on the stand that alsup says “look like part of a washing machine” Thanks: @inafried
Context & Ripple Effects
The Waymo-Uber fight has been escalating since March, when Waymo asked the court to block Uber from operating autonomous vehicles entirely. In April, Uber's court filing denied ever receiving the documents Levandowski downloaded and argued its Lidar design differs from Waymo's.
Today's development cuts both ways: Waymo produced a document showing over 5 million Uber shares promised to Levandowski vested the day after he left Google — which Uber's spokesperson now calls a back-dated grant — while Judge Alsup told Waymo it still lacks a 'smoking gun' that Uber itself knew about the stolen files.
First-order effects
- Waymo must now convert circumstantial evidence — the 9.7GB download, the shell-company allegation, the day-after vesting — into proof of Uber's actual knowledge, or its bid to halt Uber's autonomous vehicle program stalls.
- Uber gains breathing room on liability but takes new reputational damage from the stock-grant disclosure, which it has addressed via spokesperson rather than in court.
Second-order effects
- Uber's legal strategy is already isolating Levandowski: by June it argues in filings that he downloaded Waymo IP as a negotiating tactic for his $120M bonus, reframing the case as one engineer's misconduct rather than corporate theft.
- Waymo's access to Travis Kalanick's deposition — which Uber agreed to — becomes the decisive venue for testing whether leadership knew, since the documentary record so far hasn't supplied the smoking gun Alsup demands.
Third-order effects
- The pattern here ends with individual criminal exposure outlasting the civil dispute: the Justice Department ultimately charged Levandowski with 33 counts of trade-secret theft, showing that even when a company escapes or settles civil claims, the departing engineer carries the risk personally.
- For the autonomous vehicle industry, the case establishes that hiring a star engineer from a rival imports their IP baggage — acquirers like Uber now face discovery into exactly what a hire downloaded, not just what they built.
The trend: Self-driving's talent wars are being adjudicated through trade-secret litigation, where corporate liability turns on proving what an acquirer knew about a star hire's file downloads.