
Ask HN: What's the worst possible outcome for Uber in the Waymo vs. Uber case? - donsupreme
Can someone break down what&#x27;s the worst possible consequence for Uber if the judge found them guilty criminally?
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wayn3
You probably just expressed that imprecisely, but companies can not be found
to have acted criminally. Crimes can only be committed by bodies that can be
put in prison.

What they can do is assert that some critical part of technology that uber has
access to originated at waymo and was brought to uber by whoever brought it
there - in an illegal way.

If that's the case, they can be both forced to pay damages and be forced to
turn over (essentially delete) the things they are in possession of that are
not "theirs". In that case, anything that uber has developed "on top of" what
had been stolen, could be assigned to waymo as well. Practically, this is just
all settled with money. they won't run back and forth with data and software.
Waymo gets however much they are assigned in damages and Uber will be told to
not use these things anymore.

That can easily shut the whole Uber self driving car operation down - or
cripple it so much that continuing won't be feasible because they would run
out of money first/be unfundable.

The guy who actually stole things from Waymo is obviously going to have a bad
time because he did (allegedly) commit a crime. In the "innocent until proven
guilty" way. I don't know what he has or has not don, but if he did take trade
secrets with him, thats going to be a problem.

~~~
siegel
Actually, a corporation can be found to have committed a crime. It can't go to
prison, but there are other possible penalties. In some states, the
corporation could even be dissolved if convicted of felonies.

It can't happen in this particular lawsuit because it's a civil lawsuit. The
government would have to bring criminal charges in a separate legal
proceeding.

In this civil case, yes, the court can award damages and enjoin Uber from
using anything it allegedly stole from Waymo. that could, as you say, cripple
their entire self-driving car operation.

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AnimalMuppet
The judge could decide that there is enough evidence that Uber is benefiting
from technology stolen from Waymo, that the judge requires Uber to halt part
or all of its self-driving car program until the trial is decided.

The trial is currently scheduled for October. But that doesn't mean it will
happen then. There are a lot of things that can delay a trial. Waymo could
even deliberately help some of them to happen. So the Uber program could be
delayed by anything from five months to a few years. If Uber thinks that the
battle will be won or lost within five years, that delay would be pretty
catastrophic.

