Uber Throws Otto Under The Bus Instead Of Facing Google’s Wrath

Faced with the prospect of going on a head-on collision with Google with practically no protection, Uber had a choice to make. It could either stand with the Otto or it could throw the self-driving firm it acquired under the bus to protect its interests. It seems Uber chose the latter since it is basically diverting blame over to the startup accused of stealing secrets from Google.

Lawyers from the two companies have been meeting for the past two days, which by all accounts have proven unproductive, TechCrunch reports. It would seem that much of the time spent involved bickering over who gets to view what trade secrets.

Aside from simply arguing over details, Uber is also moving to make sure that there will be as little fallout coming out of this development as possible by filing a request to move the case over to binding arbitration, thus avoiding open court. This would afford the company more privacy, though, it’s not exactly going to do much at this point unless there’s another explosive revelation down the road.

If approved, this would also serve to shield Uber from much of the damage because it would put Otto co-founder and former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski at the forefront of the case instead of the cab-hailing firm. Uber is basing this petition on the argument that the original contract that Levandowski had with Google does not merit an open court proceeding, USA Today reports.

Uber has yet to file the petition but did announce that it plans to do so after both sides met in court for the first time this Thursday. The firm believes that this is the right path to take simply because the issue of theft of trademarked secrets occurred when Levandowski was still employed by Google. Basically, Uber just threw the Otto co-founder under the bus.