Anthony Levandowski has been ordered to pay $179 million to Google. He was a former star engineer who is charged with stealing Google’s self-driving car secrets and moving on to join Uber Technologies.
After the judge ordered Levandowski to pay $179 million to Google, the founder of autonomous vehicle startup Otto which Uber acquired later, filed for bankruptcy protection, as per news report.
“Levandowski personally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, stating that the presumptive $179 million debt quite exceeds his assets, which he estimates at somewhere between $50 million and $100 million,” the report said.
Waymo, Google’s self driving car unit filed the case in 2017, alleging that the stolen information became the technological basis for Uber’s self-driving cars.
According to the lawsuit, Levandowski, who earlier headed its self-driving car project, downloaded around 14,000 files from his company-issued computer containing trade secrets related to Waymo’s LIDAR technology, circuit board designs, and testing documentation.
The company also alleged that Levandowski tried to remove traces of those actions by reformatting his laptop.
Levandowski joined Uber after his stint at Google and shepherded Uber’s own self-driving car programme.
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