Uber Threatens to Fire Self-Driving Car Executive
May 19 2017 - 01:08AM
Dow Jones News
By Jack Nicas
Uber Technologies Inc. has threatened to fire Anthony
Levandowski, the top driverless-car engineer at the center of its
legal battle with Google parent Alphabet Inc., if he doesn't comply
with a court order to turn over any files that he might have.
Uber sent Mr. Levandowski a four-page letter Monday saying he
must comply with a court order issued last week that requires him
to return 14,000 allegedly stolen files and an extensive accounting
of any Uber employees' handling or knowledge of the files.
Mr. Levandowski, a former Alphabet engineer who joined Uber last
year to run its driverless-car program, has repeatedly invoked his
Fifth Amendment rights in the case, declining to comment and
refusing to turn over documents.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled last week that Mr.
Levandowski's use of the Fifth Amendment doesn't bar Uber from
firing him, and that the company shouldn't "pull any punches" in
compelling him to surface more information around the allegedly
stolen files.
Uber's letter to Mr. Levandowski was revealed in a motion his
attorneys filed with the court late Thursday that asks the judge to
revise his ruling that Uber could fire Mr. Levandowski for invoking
the Fifth Amendment.
Uber and Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car unit, declined to
comment. Attorneys representing Mr. Levandowski didn't respond to a
request for comment.
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 19, 2017 01:53 ET (05:53 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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