Anthony Levandowski took his seat in a conference room one sunny Friday morning in April and proceeded to read the same phrase from a sheet of paper for the next five hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the advice and direction of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer. And I assert the rights guaranteed to me under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,\u201d Levandowski said. And then he said it again. And again.<\/p>\n
Levandowski, who describes himself as a pioneer in the field of self-driving vehicle technology, had never been deposed before. But his contributions to the driverless car industry, first at Google\u2019s self-driving unit Waymo and later at Uber, have landed him at the center of a contentious legal battle between the two companies. During the April meeting with Waymo\u2019s lawyers, Levandowski was confronted with the details of the technology he created and asked to admit he had stolen it.<\/p>\n
Although Levandowski answered no questions except a handful about his time as a UC Berkeley student, the questions themselves reveal certain intricacies of Waymo\u2019s technology \u2014 features that Waymo claims have inexplicably turned up in Uber\u2019s lidar devices.<\/p>\n
The lawyers\u2019 questions for Levandowski also show that Waymo and Uber\u2019s arguments focus on\u00a0different components of their respective lidar systems and that, as the preliminary injunction looms, the two companies are still talking past each other about their technology.<\/p>\n
Waymo has accused Levandowski of copying tens of thousands of confidential files about its lidar technology and using them to jumpstart Uber\u2019s effort to become the first company to commercialize self-driving vehicles. On May 3, a federal judge will decide whether Waymo\u2019s allegations are convincing enough to temporarily halt Uber\u2019s work \u2014 a move that would devastate Uber\u2019s plan to become profitable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an exceptional case. It calls for exceptional relief,\u201d Waymo\u2019s attorney Charles Verhoeven wrote in a filing. \u201cTo this day, Levandowski remains heavily involved in Uber\u2019s LiDAR development. Uber should be enjoined from continuing to use Levandowski in its driverless car program and from continuing to misappropriate and infringe Waymo\u2019s intellectual property.\u201d<\/p>\n