Self-Driving Car Engineer Demands $180M Compensation From Uber For Google Trade-Secret Theft Case

Self-driving technology star Anthony Levandowski has filed a motion to get Uber Technologies Inc. UBER into an arbitration, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

What Happened

The arbitration is related to the trade secret-theft dispute with Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG and the engineer is demanding $180 million in compensation for a lost bonus and legal fees.

Levandowski noted in the motion that Uber had promised to indemnify him for all costs arising out of any retaliatory action taken by Alphabet, when he moved from the latter's subsidiary Wyamo to the ride-hailing company in 2016.

"After it was clear that [Levandowski] could be liable for a substantial judgment, Uber reneged on its deal and refused to pay the expenses, including any potential judgment, as required by the indemnification agreement," the motion has alleged, as earlier reported by Bloomberg.

The engineer's lawyer Neel Chatterjee told Bloomberg that Uber paid for his expenses for three years, but when it became clear that Google was winning the arbitration, the company backtracked.

Levandowski is facing up to 30 months in prison when he is sentenced in August on count of trade-secret theft. He has pleaded guilty.

Price Action

Uber's shares closed 8.95% lower at $25.42 on Wednesday and traded slightly higher in the after-hours session at $25.65.

Alphabet's Class A shares closed 5.15% lower at $1,102.10 and inched slightly higher in the after-hours at $1,103.

Class C shares closed 4.9% lower at $1,105.62 and traded 0.2% in the after-hours at $1,108.