Trade secrets involving autonomous-vehicle technologies are at the heart of a blockbuster dispute between two of Silicon Valley?s most influential companies.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Waymo, the company formerly known as Google?s self-driving-car project, alleges that a former employee who now heads Uber?s autonomous-driving unit downloaded more than 14,000 ?highly confidential and proprietary? files before leaving to start his own company in 2015.
Six weeks before he resigned, Waymo accuses, Anthony Levandowski allegedly took ?extraordinary efforts to raid Waymo?s design server and then conceal his activities,? according to the lawsuit, filed against Uber Technologies and its subsidiary, Otto, in U.S. District Court on Thursday. Waymo says the download of documents amounts to the theft of critical trade secrets and is a violation of federal laws that protect the company, which is seeking monetary damages. ?Our parent company, Alphabet, has long worked with Uber in many areas, and we didn?t make this decision lightly,? Waymo wrote in a statement posted to Medium. ?However, given the overwhelming facts that our technology has been stolen, we have no choice but to defend our investment and development of this unique technology.?

A new lidar unit attached to one of Uber’s self-driving vehicles.
Levandowski did not immediately return a request from C/D for comment Thursday. But the stakes are high for both companies. An unfavorable outcome for Uber or Otto in the co...