Uber s driverless car program to be probed

New York May 12 (IANS) A US judge has asked federal prosecutors to investigate Uber Technologies Inc and one of its engineers for potential theft of trade secrets from Google a media report said.

The judge also determined the lawsuit Google filed against Uber would head to trial dealing a blow to Uber s strategy The Wall Street Journal reported.

This will heighten the stakes of a legal battle between Uber and Google parent Alphabet Inc over driverless-car technology.

The judge late on Thursday temporarily blocked a limited part of Uber s driverless-car program which Google alleges benefited from the stolen trade secrets.

The motion issuing a partial injunction was sealed. As a result the scope and details of the injunction - and how drastically it would curb Uber s program - was unclear.

Alphabet s driverless-car unit which Google recently renamed Waymo had asked the judge to block much of Uber s work on self-driving cars.

--IANS
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