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Uber, in response to a lawsuit filed by Google parent company Alphabet, today filed an opposition that says the company effectively doesn’t have any of the documents Alphabet claims were stolen.
More specifically, after conducting a search, Uber argues the files never touched its servers.
The ride-hailing giant is facing a lawsuit from Alphabet, which claims one of Uber’s executives stole proprietary information on a key piece of self-driving technology known as lidar, a laser-based system for navigating streets.
Alphabet says the Uber executive, Anthony Levandowski, a former Alphabet employee, stole 14,000 files to help Uber develop its own self-driving system.
“Both of its central premises — that former Waymo employees brought thousands of confidential Waymo documents to Uber to build a copycat LiDAR and that Uber’s LiDAR closely mimics Waymo’s single-lens design — are demonstrably false,” Uber said in today’s filing. Alphabet’s self-driving division is now called Waymo.
Levandowski is now the head of Uber’s self-driving department. That’s why Alphabet is concerned that the designs for a key sensor technology Levandowski allegedly stole have made its way into the company’s autonomous vehicles.
Alphabet responded that Uber hasn’t properly made a search for the stolen files. “Uber’s assertion that they’ve never touched the 14,000 stolen files is disingenuous at best, given their refusal to look in the most obvious place: The computers and devices owned by the head of their self-driving program,” a Waymo spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Alphabet has requested an injunction, which, if granted, could force Uber to cease most of its self-driving operations. The next hearing is scheduled for May 3.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
