Documents filed in the Waymo v. Uber litigation yesterday laid out in the starkest terms yet where each side stands.

After extraordinary amounts of discovery, Waymo hasn't found the 14,000 files its says were downloaded from Google, Waymo's parent company—but Waymo still says communications between Levandowski and his co-workers at Uber indicate a "coverup." Uber, meanwhile, says that Waymo has scoured its work facilities and deposed its employees, but still "can't deliver"—because the secret files Waymo is looking for never got to Uber.

Waymo sued Uber back in February, claiming that the company had acquired Waymo trade secrets. Uber's then-chief of self-driving car research, Anthony Levandowski, had downloaded more than 14,000 files before leaving Google without notice in January 2016, Waymo said. Uber doesn't deny that took place, and Levandowski clammed up, pleading the Fifth Amendment and refusing to answer questions.

Since then, Uber has said that, while Levandowski did reveal he had five discs of information from Google, he was told to destroy them. He said he complied. None of the alleged trade secrets reached Uber servers, the company's lawyers say. When Levandowski wouldn't help out with the company's discovery requests, he was fired on May 26.

Levandowski isn't a defendant in Waymo v. Uber, but Waymo has a separate arbitration proceeding against him. US District Judge William Alsup, who is overseeing the litigation, has alerted federal criminal investigators to the allegations against Levandowski.

Uber says...

No one at Uber knew that Levandowski downloaded or took any Google information until this lawsuit was filed. Uber has clear rules preventing new employees from bringing or using information from any prior employer, including Google, and Levandowski signed employment agreements with both Ottomotto (his own startup) and Uber agreeing not to use any material from former employers.

When Levandowski revealed he had "found five discs in his home that contained Google information"—without mentioning any downloading—his colleague Lior Ron told him to discuss the matter with his lawyers and report the incident to Uber. Levandowski did so and told Uber execs Travis Kalanick, Cameron Poetzscher, and Nina Qi about the five discs.

"Kalanick emphatically told Levandowski that Uber did not want any such information, that Levandowski should not bring any such information to Uber, and to talk to his lawyer," Uber lawyers wrote in yesterday's filing (PDF)

Levandowski didn't tell those executives, or anyone else at Uber, about downloading Google information. It was only when Waymo sued Uber that the company learned that "Levandowski may have engaged in improper downloading and theft of Google information."

Following the lawsuit, Levandowski pleaded his Fifth Amendment rights. When Uber demanded that Levandowski help with Uber's investigation and defense of the lawsuit, he wouldn't cooperate. As a result, he was fired on May 26.

If the trade secrets never got to Uber, what's Uber's view on why Levandowski did it? This filing lays out, for the first time, Uber's operating theory. It had nothing to do with working at Uber. Rather, the downloading was done "specifically to ensure the expected payment of Levandowski's $120 million bonus from Google."

Levandowski had only been paid $50 million by the end of 2015, and he got the money months late. He got the remaining $70 million in August 2016, months after he left Google.

In other words, Levandowski was keeping the files as a kind of insurance policy, knowing that Google hadn't been quick to pay, and he was leaving suddenly on not-so-great terms. Uber says its investigation into this "is ongoing," but the company expects to present "this and other evidence at trial."

Here's Uber's official statement on the new filings:

This is the best indication yet that Waymo overpromised and can't deliver. Uber took precautions to ensure that no former Google employees, including Levandowski, brought Google IP with them to Uber. And it worked. After searching through terabytes of data, deposing numerous employees and spending 55 hours with free rein to inspect our facilities, Waymo has turned up exactly zero evidence that any of the 14,000 files came to Uber. In recent days, Waymo has blamed a law firm [and] a third-party forensics vendor, and, now that it is becoming more and more clear that this downloading had nothing to do with Uber, [Waymo] resort[ed] to peddling a "coverup" theory that was explicitly rejected by the Court as recently as last week.

Waymo says...

Waymo may not have found a fire, but the company's lawyers see thick smoke everywhere—namely, in the communications that took place regularly between Levandowski and others at Uber, much of which is still cloaked in claims of privilege.

"The evidence to date indicates that Uber and Anthony Levandowski were in league with one another to port Waymo's trade secrets to Uber going as far back as May 2015," write Waymo lawyers in their brief (PDF).

The existence of those early communications, which took place months before Levandowski left Google in January 2016, were revealed in Uber's privilege log.

By October of that year, an Uber engineer who worked on Lidar, the laser-guidance systems that are key to self-driving cars, was speculating about getting Lidar from "NewCo"—now revealed to be Uber's code name for Otto, Levandowski's startup.

By December, Levandowski had a meeting with Uber executives to discuss Lidar. "Later that same day, the undisputed evidence of record indicates that Mr. Levandowski downloaded 14,000 proprietary files from Waymo servers," wrote Waymo lawyers (emphasis from the original brief).

Waymo also argues that the massive scope of the due diligence investigation that was done before Uber bought Otto for $680 million in stock is "proof enough that Uber knew Levandowski had Waymo materials... it was, and remains, a process that was unprecedented for Uber."

Uber hired a well-known digital forensics firm, Stroz Friedberg, to conduct the investigation. Stroz analyzed both work and personal electronic devices of five different Otto employees.

"Despite this, the Uber witnesses responsible for overseeing the investigation testified that the diligenced employees did not seem upset by the scope of the investigation that Uber requested," note Waymo lawyers. "The most likely explanation for that is, of course, that all parties already knew what Uber was looking for—stolen Waymo files... Defendants have never disputed that Stroz has some of the stolen files in its possession as a result of the due diligence process."

Uber lawyers fought to keep the due diligence report out of Waymo's hands, but Uber lost that battle earlier this month. Waymo still hasn't seen the report, though.

Finally, there's Levandowski's own admission: he told Kalanick, Qi, and Poetzscher that he had the five discs of Google material in March 2016. While Uber lawyers pointed to Levandowski's ordered destruction of those discs as evidence of a functioning wall keeping other companies' material away from Uber, Waymo lawyers claim, "Uber never took any steps to prohibit Levandowski from using his 'treasure trove of files' in his work at Uber." (Emphasis in original.)

Here's Waymo's public statement on recent court developments:

The evidence clearly shows that stolen information has already made its way into Uber's technology. We're not convinced by Uber’s attempts to distance itself from a former star engineer it paid $250m to come to Uber while knowing he possessed Waymo's proprietary information. Rather than do the right thing, Uber took part in a coverup, only firing Mr. Levandowski after their actions were exposed in litigation.

Discovery is continuing in the case, which is currently scheduled for an October trial. Waymo has requested a hearing in which it will argue that Uber should be held in contempt of court, due to not meeting its discovery obligations. A hearing has been scheduled on the matter for late July.