The Waymo lawsuit hasn’t already been looking good for Uber and now, Waymo has filed new claims in the lawsuit. Waymo alleged that Uber held back information about the LiDAR systems it is using in development of driverless cars. The lawsuit was already a twisted affair with events going back by years.
Earlier, Uber revealed that their system isn’t the same as Waymo and they are using off the shelf LiDAR systems by Velodyne because their own system, code-named Fuji, isn’t ready yet. This was probably one of the rare occasions when a major tech company accepted that it is not the best at something. Now Waymo claims that Uber worked on another system that copies the design of Waymo system closely and uses a similar single lens system.
Waymo also claimed that Uber participated in the cover up to prevent the court from knowing about the second system. Uber lawyer on the other hand claims that the second system was never developed into a full prototype and ended up at some unassembled parts which were shown to Waymo.
TechCrunch reports that Waymo learned of the second system during an Uber employee’s deposition on April 13. The employee who previously worked for Google and 510 Systems told lawyers that he worked on two systems for Otto.
Amidst all this, Levandowski, the ex-Googler and Otto founder who is at the centre of this lawsuit hasn’t said anything yet. He asserted his Fifth Amendment rights and hasn’t addressed the allegations.
Source: TechCrunch
