GM's robotaxi unit Cruise has agreed to pay a 500,000 for submitting a false accident report as part of a deferred prosecution agreement. The US Justice Department (DoJ) said that Cruise failed to disclose vital details about a serious October 2023 accident in which one of its vehicles struck a pedestrian and dragged her 20 feet after she was hit by another vehicle. "Federal laws and regulations are in place to protect public safety on our roads. Companies with self-driving cars that seek to share our roads and crosswalks must be fully truthful in their reports to their regulators," said Martha Boersch, Chief of the Office of the U.S. Attorney's Criminal Division. Uber has yet to comment on the matter.

Things don't look good for Uber and autonomous vehicle wunderkind Anthony Levandowski, the former Google engineer who now leads the startup's robocar program. This week, US District Court William Alsup made two decisive decisions in the lawsuit between Google's autonomous vehicle spinoff Waymo and Uber. You know, the one accusing Levandowski of swiping 14,000 confidential documents from and taking them with him to Uber. First, Alsup rebuffed Uber's efforts to settle the case in arbitration, so the drama will play out publicly during a trial. "We welcome the court's decision today, and we look forward to holding Uber responsible in court for its misconduct," it said in a statement.

A lawsuit by Waymo, alleging the use by rival Uber Technologies of stolen trade secrets relating to autonomous vehicle technology, has been referred by a federal judge to a U.S. attorney, raising the possibility of a criminal prosecution. "This case is referred to the United States Attorney for investigation of possible theft of trade secrets based on the evidentiary record supplied thus far concerning plaintiff Waymo LLC's claims for trade secret misappropriation," wrote Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California late Thursday. "The Court takes no position on whether a prosecution is or is not warranted, a decision entirely up to the United States Attorney," Judge Alsup added. In another order, the Judge also rejected Uber's motion that most of the claims of the lawsuit should be settled through arbitration, a process that is usually conducted in private, and is cheaper and faster than a federal lawsuit. The dispute in the autonomous vehicle technology market reflects the stiff competition to get driverless vehicles in the hands of consumers.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, file photo, a self-driving Uber car stops at a red light on Liberty Avenue through the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh. In just a few years, well-mannered self-driving robotaxis will share the roads with reckless, law-breaking human drivers. The prospect is causing migraines for the people developing the robocars and is slowing their development. But experts say eventually the cars will coexist with human drivers on real roads.

The federal judge overseeing a trade secret dispute between Uber and the Google spin-off Waymo has recommended that federal prosecutors begin a criminal investigation into the alleged theft of Waymo's self-driving car technology. Judge William Alsup's referral of the case to the US attorney came amid a flurry of orders in the contentious lawsuit between two Silicon Valley giants. Alsup also denied Uber's attempt to force the case into arbitration and partially granted Waymo's request for a preliminary injunction against Uber. The details of the preliminary injunction are sealed, so it is unclear to what extent Uber will be affected by the order. Waymo had sought to compel the return of its documents and to bar Uber from using lidar technology it said was stolen.