Ask HN: What's the worst possible outcome for Uber in the Waymo vs. Uber case?
Can someone break down what's the worst possible consequence for Uber if the judge found them guilty criminally?
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.
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.
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.