Levandowski faces fresh accusations of stealing trade secrets

The Waymo v. Uber trial is set to finally get started next month, but Anthony Levandowski, the man who has been accused of taking 14,000 files from Google's self-driving outfit when he left the company for his own startup Otto, has been hit with a lawsuit that may affect Waymo's. Wired reports that Levandowski's former nanny, Erika Wong, has filed a suit against him claiming Levandowski failed to pay her wages, violated labor and health codes and inflicted emotional distress. But the complaint also includes details of Levandowski's business practices, which suggest that he might have been paying off employees of other autonomous vehicle companies and that he considered fleeing to Canada when Waymo first filed its lawsuit. In the filing, Wong says that the day Waymo filed its suit against Uber, Levandowski was noticeably agitated while he spoke to his lawyer over the phone -- sweating and pacing as he cursed into the phone. When Waymo filed for an injunction against Uber, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick visited Levandowski's house, according to Wong, with legal documents for Levandowski to sign as well as a bucket full of circuit boards and lenses.