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With the purchase of Otto in 2016, the company signed an indemnity agreement which agreed to compensate Levandowski in case any claims were brought forward by his former employer. “Uber eats injunctions for breakfast,” Uber CEO Travis Kalanick allegedly told Levandowski.

However, Uber lost it's confidence in Levandowski when they found out about the full extent of the download that contained Google's trade secrets. And they were reportedly upset when they found out how much they were going to have to pay Google. 

As a result, Uber refused to honor the agreement, instead firing and then suing Levandowski.

Throughout the criminal proceedings, Levandowski’s attorneys were adamant that none of the Google documents were ever used or shared.

"Google engaged an army of lawyers and forensic experts to comb through Uber's facilities, servers, source code, design files, and prototypes -- making 12 separate installations in all," according to Levandowski's lawyers.

Federal investigators also looked for evidence of wrongdoing, the lawyers noted. "None of these efforts produced any evidence that Mr. Levandowski used any of Google's trade secrets after leaving Google's employment, whether at Uber or anywhere else."

In 2018, Levandowski co-founded Pronto AI, developing a new aftermarket safety system for commerical trucks called Copilot. Three months later he was indicted on federal charges and had to step down as CEO.

In February 2019, Alphabet, the parent company of Waymo, and Uber settled out of court, in a deal estimated at $245 million. Levandowski was ordered to pay $750,000 in restitution in the case. He filed for bankruptcy the same day.

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