Uber’s ‘No Trial’ Appeal Rejected, Forced To Face The Music

In order to avoid what is looking like a catastrophic blow to its autonomous car ambitions, Uber has been trying to move its legal case against Waymo to arbitration instead of a full-blown trial. This has been soundly rejected, which means that the cab-hailing firm is being forced towards a death march. On another note, new details seem to indicate that Google wanted to fire Antony Levandowski for his nefarious activities long before the lawsuit.

The trial between Uber and Waymo is set for October 10, 2017, which is when the fate of either company will be determined. Prior to US District Judge William Alsup rejecting Uber’s appeal to move the case to an arbitration level, the cab-hailing firm was trying to make it out as if the whole thing should be between Levandowski and his former employer, Ars Technica reports.

Clearly, this did not work. Now Uber has to make preparations with regards to its impending battle against Waymo. The decision by Judge Alsup has also been upheld by the Federal Circuit’s US Court of Appeals, where the panel made up of three judges concluded that the cab-hailing firm had no grounds to avoid a trial.

"The [district] court applied the governing legal standard and determined that the Defendants had not satisfied it," the panel said. "The district court correctly concluded that arbitration should not be compelled."

In related news, it would seem that the former chief of Google’s self-driving car division Chris Urmson had wanted to get rid of Levandowski back in August 2015, Jalopnik reports. Apparently, the central figure in the Uber/Waymo case has been involved in illicit activities, including setting up a “package deal of people that he could sell en masse to Uber.”

Urmson also noted Levandowski’s lack of enthusiasm when it was revealed that he [Urmson] would be leading Google’s driverless car efforts and not Levandowski. Eventually, it became clear that the engineer had become more of a liability than an asset.