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Uber settles with Google in tech theft lawsuit

Uber is to settle a lawsuit against it brought by autonomous car business Waymo, a sister company to Google, regarding the theft of self-driving car technology.

Both Uber and Waymo have issued statements on Friday confirming the settlement, which has concluded an ongoing trial between the two companies and years of contest.

Waymo said Uber will pay it $245m (£177m) as part of the settlement.

Uber's chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, said that the company does not believe it received any trade secrets from Waymo, and that it is taking steps to ensure that its research is unique to work carried out internally.

The settlement includes an agreement "to ensure that any Waymo confidential information is not being incorporated in Uber hardware and software".

In 2015, at the start of the civil case, Waymo accused Uber of using trade secrets stolen by one of its former engineers .

It claimed Anthony Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 confidential files before going on to lead Uber's driver-less programme the following year.

Waymo sought $1bn (£760m) from Uber in settlement talks over the alleged theft of self-driving technology.

The confidential files are understood to reference a proprietary tool called Lidar which Waymo's self-driving cars use to navigate. Uber has claimed its own technology was significantly different.

Uber subsequently dismissed Levandowski after claiming that he had failed to co-operate with court terms as part of the investigation.

The initial settlement conditions were reportedly rejected as a "non-starter" by Uber in a case that was eventually escalated to the US Attorney's Office .

Due to the settlement achieved by both companies on Friday, the judge has now dismissed the ongoing trial.