Asking a federal judge in the United States, Waymo is seeking to delay the trial against Uber scheduled in October.
Alphabet's self-driving car unit says that it recently acquired new evidence critical to the lawsuit, and as such, it needs more time to process the additional info.
Waymo Wants To Postpone The Trial Against Uber
On Sept. 13, a federal court in California ordered Uber to hand over a 2016 "due diligence" report to Waymo, granting the Alphabet-owned division a huge win in the case.
Waymo has been after the report in question for months. Former Uber and Waymo engineer Anthony Levandowski allegedly stole more than 14,000 files before he left Waymo and started the self-driving truck company that is Otto, which was almost immediately acquired by Uber. Waymo believed that by obtaining the report, it would determine what Uber knows and when it did so.
Reuters reported that Uber has declared that it hasn't used the self-driving trade secrets of Waymo, but the company did admit that Levandowski downloaded the aforementioned confidential files. However, it argued that it was solely done so that he could secure his bonus payment from Alphabet.
Now a San Francisco federal court is scheduled to assemble a jury on Oct. 10, but according to Recode, Alphabet says it would be "unfairly prejudiced if the trial proceeds as initially scheduled on Oct. 10 without additional time to pursue this mountain of new evidence." In other words, Alphabet requires more time to complete the investigation the new pieces of evidence called for.
On that note, Waymo has accused Uber and Stroz Friedberg, the company that prepared the report, "produced or made available a small portion of the material required." At that, the lawyers representing Waymo have yet to see the ins and outs involved in the preparation of the said report.
Waymo vs Uber: Beyond The Lawsuit
The two are among the forerunners in the future of self-driving cars, one of which includes Lyft, the number 2 ride-hailing company behind Uber.
However, between the current top 2 firms, the tables may turn soon, as Alphabet is reportedly in talks with Lyft for a $1 billion investment, which could give Lyft the push it needs to topple Uber from the top.
That, of course, piles on the many troubles Uber and its new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi are facing, including the so-called "Hell" software that the company used to spy on Lyft drivers.
