Uber Technologies Inc. has fired its top self-driving car engineer, Anthony Levandowski, the former Google Inc. employee who is at the heart of the Waymo Inc. lawsuit that accuses Uber of using stolen technology.

Waymo, which is the name of Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car division, claims that Levandowski stole thousands of confidential files when he left the company to found his own self-driving car startup, Otto, which was later acquired by Uber for more than $680 million. The lawsuit also claims that Uber’s self-driving cars use LiDAR that is directly copied from Waymo’s technology.

Uber has denied both of these claims, and the company said it has no knowledge of Levandowski retaining files stolen from Google. Meanwhile, Waymo’s lawyers have argued that either Uber knew about the alleged file theft or it did not do its due diligence when acquiring Levandowski’s company.

Anthony Levandowski (Photo: LinkedIn)

Levandowski’s termination comes less than two weeks after Uber, under pressure from U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, threatened to cut him loose if he did not waive his Fifth Amendment rights and turn over his personal devices and files to the court. At the time, Levandowski’s lawyers called the move “unconstitutional,” and accused the court of “forcing him to choose between his privileges and continued employment.” Uber has allegedly continued to pressure Levandowski to comply with the court’s request, but now it seems the company has run out of patience.

A termination letter sent to Levandowski says that he was fired “for cause” after he had been advised to cooperate fully with the court’s requests. The letter also says that when Levandowski was hired, he informed Uber that he had “returned or destroyed all property and confidential information belonging to any prior employer.” Uber seems to suggest in its letter that this may not have been the case.

“Over the last few months Uber has provided significant evidence to the court to demonstrate that our self-driving technology has been built independently,” Angela Padilla, Uber’s associate general counsel for employment and litigation, said in an internal email sent out to employees. “Over that same period, Uber has urged Anthony to fully cooperate in helping the court get to the facts and ultimately helping to prove our case.”

According to the Washington Post, Levandowski’s lawyers are expected to fight the termination on the grounds that it violates his Fifth Amendment rights.

Photo: Uber