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Uber, Google's Waymo Settle Case Over Trade Secrets For Self-Driving Cars

An Uber driverless Ford Fusion drives in Pittsburgh in 2016. On Friday, Uber and Google's Waymo self-driving unit announced a settlement in their trade secrets case.
Jeff Swensen Getty Images
An Uber driverless Ford Fusion drives in Pittsburgh in 2016. On Friday, Uber and Google's Waymo self-driving unit announced a settlement in their trade secrets case.

Uber has reached a settlement valued at $245 million with Google's self-driving car subsidiary Waymo, in a major trade secrets trial that began Monday.

Federal District Judge William Alsup revealed news of the settlement Friday morning in a San Francisco courtroom. The settlement caps a week of contentious proceedings, including testimony from embattled former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

Waymo, the company spun off from Google's self-driving project, had accused Uber of poaching its top self-driving car engineer, Anthony Levandowski, who had led Google's efforts on autonomous vehicles since 2011.

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Waymo alleged that Levandowski downloaded over 14,000 files before leaving the company to found his own startup, which was bought less than a year later by Uber.

Representatives for both companies confirmed news of the settlement. A source at Uber familiar with the agreement said the ride-hailing company will provide Waymo with a 0.34 percent equity stake in Uber, which has been valued at $72 billion. That percentage would equal about $245 million.

Waymo had originally requested $1 billion in cash to settle the suit, according to the source.

The settlement ends a potentially long and costly legal battle for Uber, which is looking to go public next year. The source says that while Uber may have to modify its Lidar technology — the focus of the trade secrets dispute — it will not be leaving the self-driving car business.

"We are taking steps with Waymo to ensure our Lidar and software represents just our good work," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement posted Friday morning.

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"While I cannot erase the past, I can commit, on behalf of every Uber employee, that we will learn from it, and it will inform our actions going forward," he said.

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