Uber Fires Former Google Engineer at Heart of Self-Driving Dispute -
By MIKE ISAACMAY 30, 2017
SAN FRANCISCO — Uber has fired Anthony Levandowski, a vice president of technology
and the star engineer leading the company’s self-driving automobile efforts, according to an internal email sent to employees on Tuesday.
Waymo claims that Uber is using trade secrets stolen from Google to develop Uber’s self-driving
vehicles, a plan aided by Mr. Levandowski, a former longtime Google employee.
“Over the last few months Uber has provided significant evidence to the court to demonstrate
that our self-driving technology has been built independently,” Angela Padilla, Uber’s associate general counsel for employment and litigation, wrote in an email to employees.
Mr. Levandowski’s termination, effective immediately, comes as a result of his involvement in a legal battle between Uber
and Waymo, the self-driving technology unit spun out of Google last year.