http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2017/11/28/judge-delays-waymo-trial-after-uber-withholds-alleged-evidence/

A federal judge on Tuesday delayed a high-profile trial between Uber and Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Alphabet, Google's parent company, saying that a new letter contradicted earlier statements made by the ride-hailing company.

Waymo requested that the court push back the trial date, to gather more information gleaned from the letter, which was only shared with the judge last week, and described Uber's alleged efforts to steal trade secrets from rivals. The letter was written by a lawyer for a former Uber employee, Richard Jacobs, who worked as a security analyst. Jacobs testified at Tuesday's hearing that Uber deliberately used messaging technology to avoid leaving a paper trail, including apps that automatically delete correspondence. He said that a special team at Uber was tasked with gathering code and trade secrets from competing businesses. According to the 37-page letter from his lawyer, that team also worked “to evade, impede, obstruct, influence several ongoing lawsuits against Uber,” several reports said.