Uber fires self-driving car division head

Uber has terminated the employment of its key engineer of self-driving car division, Anthony Levandowski, who was accused of stealing confidential information from Alphabet, owner of Google.

Levandowski was deemed to have failed to help in a probe related to a lawsuit filed by Waymo, autonomous car unit operating under Alphabet, against Uber, reported BBC.

In the lawsuit filed in February, Waymo alleged that Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 documents containing trade secrets before quitting the company to launch his firm Otto, which Uber acquired for nearly $700m in 2016.

Levandowski was one of the important engineers involved in the development of Google’s autonomous car programme.

Last month in a court filing, Uber notified Levandowski that he should comply with the order and return the documents to Waymo or face the risk of having his employment with Uber terminated, reported the Guardian.

Uber has denied allegations that it is using technology stolen from Waymo. In the court filing, Uber stated that its technology is different from that of Waymo. 

Levandowski declined to testify in the lawsuit.

Countering the lawsuit, Uber stated there is no proof that the files are on its servers, although its search excluded Levandowski's system.

The court had ordered Uber to keep Levandowski and other employees from using any Waymo's documents and to return them to Alphabet by the end of May.