Waymo and Uber Reach Surprise Settlement Ending Lawsuit

The lawsuit between Waymo and Uber has been dismissed as the tech companies reached a surprise settlement.

The Verge reports that following a lengthy legal battle and week of courtroom debate, Alphabet’s self-driving car division Waymo and ride-sharing company Uber have reached a settlement, resulting in the dismissal of the case. Judge William Alsup announced this morning that the case had been dismissed in a San Francisco courtroom.

Waymo commented on the settlement saying, “We have reached an agreement with Uber that we believe will protect Waymo’s intellectual property now and into the future.” The statement continued to say, “We are committed to working with Uber to make sure that each company develops its own technology. This includes an agreement to ensure that any Waymo confidential information is not being incorporated in Uber Advanced Technologies Group hardware and software. We have always believed competition should be fueled by innovation in the labs and on the roads and we look forward to bringing fully self-driving cars to the world.”

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also commented on the settlement saying, “To our employees, in particular the great and talented people of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group: I am inspired by your passion and commitment to bringing self-driving vehicles to life. Over the last year, you’ve been distracted from your mission. For that I am sorry.”

The lawsuit brought against Uber related to allegedly stolen intellectual property from Waymo. Uber’s former CEO Travis Kalanick was allegedly approached by Anthony Levandowski, an engineer that oversaw Uber’s driverless car project and previously worked at Waymo, Google-parent company Alphabet’s self-driving car division. Levandowski allegedly told Kalanick that he was in possession of discs containing information obtained from Google, according to a recent court filing. In March of 2016, Kalanick reportedly told Levandowski that Uber did not want the information obtained from Google. Levandowski allegedly then told Kalanick and other members of Uber management that he destroyed the discs containing Google information.