I'm impressed that the random engineer was willing to put up $6k of his own money to challenge the patent, despite not benefiting from the decision in any way.
I would love to have that much attention to detail (or even in the interest in reading through the patent).
Uber - one of the world's most valuable private companies, doesn't need help with patent law.
That's the official story, but it also sounds pretty plausible.
“I explained that I had filed an ex parte reexamination on my own and Waymo had had it for two weeks already and it didn’t seem fair that Uber didn’t have it, given it was going to trial,” explains Swildens. “But I felt the guy thought I was some crazy person who just came in off the street.”