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Waymo, the self-driving vehicle business spun out of Googles parent company a year ago, asked a federal court on March 10, 2017 to block Ubers work on a competing self-driving truck that Waymo claimed could be using stolen technology.

Google's Waymo accused Uber of stealing documents that described critical self-driving auto technology, with former top Waymo engineer Anthony Levandowski being at the center of the case. Uber's lawyers argue that the company does not have the documents Levandowski is accused of stealing from Waymo, therefore it can not hand them over in the scheduled document production. He did so to avoid turning over documents in the Waymo v. Uber trade-secret litigation.

Speaking to The New York Times, the lawyers for Anthony Levandowski say that he will exercise his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination due to the potential of criminal action in the case.

Anthony Levandowski, the head of Uber's self-driving auto project, took the extraordinary step during a closed court hearing on Wednesday.

The case is expected to be a high-profile fight that pits two of the biggest companies involved in trying to put autonomous cars on the road-unless Uber succeeds in moving things out of the public eye and in to arbitration.

Uber has asked the court to stay Waymo's trade secret and unfair competition claims if it decides they have to be settled by arbitration, but should let the remaining claims such as the patent infringement charges proceed in the court.

For the time being, Levandowski's lawyers said that they're "broadly asserting" his Fifth Amendment rights to "any documents he may possess and control" that are relevant.

The Times cites court transcripts from a Thursday hearing, which include Levandowski's lawyers invoking the amendment in what appears to be a precaution related to document release.

Waymo accuses Levandowski of downloading "over 14,000 highly confidential and proprietary design files for Waymo's various hardware systems" roughly six weeks prior to resigning from the company. But what's unusual is that it's only seeking to move the trade secrets and unfair competition claims, both of which it claims are meritless. The company last week filed a motion to request that the disputes around trade secrets be resolved in private arbitration instead of a public court.

The said arbitration process accused him of leaving the company with a full load of confidential information, which was later used to poach other employees from Waymo.

The allegations Waymo made against Levandowski and Uber in the lawsuit remain unproven.

"You don't get many cases where there is pretty direct proof that somebody downloaded 14,000 documents, and then left the next day", Alsup said at a March 16 hearing.

"There's going to be a lot of adverse headlines in this case on both sides", Judge Alsup said.

"We look forward to our first public response laying out our case on Friday, 7 April", Angela Padilla, Uber's associate general counsel, said in a statement.

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Uber's Anthony Levandowsky invokes Fifth Amendment rights - AppsforPCdaily