Uber Fires Self-Driving Head at Center of Legal Battle
In the latest fallout from the legal battle between Waymo and Uber, Anthony Levandowski, who headed Uber's self-driving technology group, has been fired.
by Staff
May 30, 2017
Anthony Levandowski speaking about the future of self-driving trucks at last year's ATA Managment Conference & Exhibition.Photo: Evan Lockridge
2 min to read
Anthony Levandowski speaking about the future of self-driving trucks at last year's ATA Managment Conference & Exhibition.Photo: Evan Lockridge
In the latest fallout from the legal battle between Waymo and Uber, Anthony Levandowski, who headed Uber's self-driving technology group, has been fired, according to a report in the New York Times.
Levandowski was the central figure in Waymo’s lawsuit against Uber. That suit alleged that former Google employee Levandowski stole trade secrets related to lidar (light detection and ranging) technology when he left to form the self-driving truck company, Otto. Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
This latest news came out of an internal memo at Uber. The writing was on the wall for Levandowski who stepped down from his position as the self-driving head at Uber as a result of the lawsuit. This was seen as a preemptive move to protect Uber’s self-driving technology development by diminishing Levandowski’s role.
Levandowski pled the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination when a court ordered him to testify in the case. Uber was unable to convince Levandowski to cooperate with the investigation.
Waymo filed the suit against Uber in February of this year, accusing Levandowski of stealing files from a computer about Google’s proprietary lidar radar sensors – a key component of self-driving technology. Lidar allows a vehicle to see the road and objects around it. However, a judge recently decided that Waymo was overreaching in its claims that the stolen information violated 120 patent claims.
Recently, Uber quietly discontinued the Otto brand name, consolidating the company’s activities under its Advanced Technologies Group.
Ad Loading...
In another related development, the now-unnamed autonomous truck unit is potentially in hot water with California state officials, who announced that they will be conducting an inspection at Uber’s headquarters to see if it violated any laws by testing its trucks on public roads, according to a Forbes report.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles and California Highway Patrol are investigating whether an internal document at Otto detailing how the company tested its self-driving trucks violated state law. State law prohibits autonomous vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds from operating on public roads. Otto had apparently told DMV officials that the trucks it was testing were not being operated autonomously, however, the internal document seemed to contradict this.
Distracted driving remains one of the most persistent risks in fleet operations. New approaches focus on removing mobile device use entirely while adding real-time safety support.
As distraction risks evolve, fleets are turning to smarter, more connected technologies to better understand what’s happening behind the wheel. Part 2 explores how these tools are helping identify risky behaviors and improve visibility across operations.
Distracted driving is often measured by what we can see—phones in hand, eyes off the road. But what about the distractions we can’t? A recent incident raises a bigger question about awareness, attention, and why subtle risks so often go unnoticed.
Fleets have more driver data than ever, so why isn't behavior changing? Training requires more than reports and coaching — it requires real-world practice.
A two-part conversation with Stefan Heck on how AI is transforming the fight against distracted driving. As fleets adopt smarter tools, the focus shifts from reacting to preventing risk. In Part 1, we look at where AI is making an impact for fleets today.
An 11% drop in pedestrian fatalities in early 2025 signals progress in U.S. road safety, but elevated death rates and ongoing risks underscore the need for continued action from fleets and policymakers.
