Judge orders Uber not to use technology taken from Waymo

DETROIT – A federal judge has ordered Uber to stop using technology that a key executive downloaded before he left Waymo, the Alphabet Inc. autonomous car arm that was spun off from Google.

The order filed Monday in a trade secrets theft lawsuit also forces Uber to return all downloaded materials.

Judge William Alsup in San Francisco says in the ruling that Waymo has shown compelling evidence that a former star engineer named Anthony Levandowski downloaded confidential files before leaving Waymo. The Judge also says evidence shows that before he left Waymo, Levandowski and Uber planned for Uber to acquire a company formed by Levandowski.

The ruling prevents Uber from using the technology on a navigational tool called Lidar that robotic cars need to see what’s around them.