Judge Calls Uber/Waymo Lawyers Untrustworthy, Trial Date Moved

It seems like the longer the legal battle between Google self-driving car division Waymo and Uber go on, the more annoyed the judge is getting at both legal teams. Apparently, Judge William Alsup has grown frustrated with the antics of both companies’ legal teams. As a result, the trial date for the case has been moved, but not before Judge Alsup was done berating both teams of lawyers.

According to court documents, Judge Alsup has expressed distrust in the legal teams after both sides submitted documents that were either filled with half-truths or overstatements. This came after Waymo asked for a delay in the trial date, which was originally planned for October 10th, Ars Technica reports. The judge agreed but said that the schedule is fixed.

“I'm going to give you a schedule, and we're not going to argue about it," Judge Alsup said. "We're going to pick the jury on November 29. We will start the trial on December 4, and it will run until December 20."

The trial was meant to finally decide whether Uber really did use stolen self-driving technology from Waymo, courtesy of former Google employee Anthony Levandowski, or not. Since the engineer pled the Fifth Amendment, both companies were left with no choice but to go at each other’s throats.

What makes this court case rather complicated is that Waymo simply can’t prove that Uber stole their technology, The Lost Angeles Times reports. If Waymo was suing Levandowski, it would be a different matter since the tech giant already has some damning evidence against its former worker. This is just not the case with Uber.

At this point, there’s no clear indication of which way the trial will go because neither side has enough legal juice to push for a win. Both companies need that victory as well since self-driving technology could be worth billions in a few years. This case is basically a high-stakes game of “I know you are, but what am I?”