Uber must disclose key document in Waymo self-driving case

A magistrate judge has ruled that Uber Technologies Inc must hand over a key document that could shed light on what its executives knew about alleged theft of trade secrets from Alphabet Inc's Waymo self-driving car unit. Alphabet's Waymo claimed in a lawsuit earlier this year that former engineer Anthony Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 confidential files before leaving to set up a self-driving truck company, which Uber acquired soon after. The document in question is a due diligence report on Levandowski's startup prepared by Uber during its acquisition talks with the firm in 2016. High-profile: Levandowski, a'swaggering' six-foot-seven tech leader, is one of Silicon Valley's most significant figures in the development of self-driving cars Alphabet's Waymo claimed in a lawsuit earlier this year that former engineer Anthony Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 confidential files before leaving to set up a self-driving truck company, which Uber acquired soon after. Many of these documents relate to lidar -- or light detection and ranging -- scanning, one or more lasers sends out short pulses, which bounce back when they hit an obstacle, whether clouds, leaves or rocks.