New Evidence Makes the Uber-Waymo Self-Driving Car Lawsuit Much Nastier

The bruising legal fight between Uber and Waymo over self-driving car tech took another explosive turn today, after the judge overseeing the case discovered Uber was withholding evidence that it had a department dedicated to gathering intelligence from competitors. The evidence also showed that Uber used systems that encrypted and deleted communications to prevent them from ending up in court. The evidence in question is a letter written by an attorney for Richard Jacobs, a former member of Uber's intelligence group. According to a filing by Waymo's legal team, the letter was sent to Uber lawyers more than six months ago, and was obtained by the US attorney's office as part of its own criminal investigation into the ride-hailing company. The letter was produced as part of a since-settled legal dispute between Jacobs and Uber.