Waymo attacks Uber's self-driving truck 'cover-up'
Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car subsidiary, has accused Uber of creating a bogus self-driving truck unit to "cover up" the theft of trade secrets. The allegation was made in the US District Court in San Francisco, where Waymo is suing Uber for allegedly stealing its self-driving technology. The case centres around former Waymo employee, Anthony Levandowski, who it says stole 14,000 technical files from the company before leaving to set up his own self-driving truck unit, Otto. Uber then acquired Otto a few months later. Federal records now show that Uber's self-driving trucks are covering fewer miles than ever before. 
Editor's Note: This story was originally published on May 9, 2017. It has been updated to reflect developments including Uber's firing of 20 employees following an internal investigation into its corporate culture, as well as self-driving engineer Anthony Levandowski.

If you haven’t heard (maybe you’ve been toiling in Elon’s tunnels?), Uber has had a rough start to 2017. The Department of Justice has launched a criminal probe into the company’s use of “Greyball,” a system it used to identify regulatory officials and block them from booking rides. In January, it lost riders who objected to CEO Travis Kalanick’s (soon abandoned) seat on President Trump’s economic council.

In late February, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published an explosive blog post, accusing Uber of fostering a misogynistic corporate culture. A few days later, Google autonomous driving spinoff Waymo filed a lawsuit alleging Uber boosted its self-driving program by stealing Waymo's trade secrets.

And this week, Uber canned at least 20 employees following an internal probe into the harassment probe---with the results of an external probe to come next week. A half dozen high-level executives have left since February. Meanwhile, financial records show the company burning cash at eye-popping rates, while profitability remains elusive.

In a mess like this, it’s hard to know which problems everyone might soon forget and which could hurt the company's fortunes. To guide you, we’ve rounded up the latest fires, ranked by the likelihood they’ll be the one to scorch the house Travis built.

1. Waymo Attacks

On February 23, Waymo, Google’s self-driving car spinoff, filed a lawsuit against Uber. It alleged former employee Anthony Levandowski illicitly downloaded 14,000 technical documents, including the blueprints for its lidar sensor, technology considered essential for a fully autonomous vehicle. Waymo says Levandowski, who resigned in January 2016, used that info to cofound Otto, an autonomous-truck outfit, that same month. Uber then acquired Otto in August 2016 for nearly $700 million and put Levandowski in charge of efforts to develop fully autonomous cars. (Uber calls the suit “a baseless attempt to slow down a competitor.”)

Kalanick has said autonomous vehicles are crucial to Uber’s long-term future: If another company gets there first, it could provide a far cheaper rival service by cutting out the human drivers who take a cut of the fares. Judge William Alsup cut the company a temporary break in May and denied Waymo’s request to ban Uber from using any ill-gotten info to develop its tech until the case is resolved. But he barred Levandowski from lidar work—and then Uber fired him this month, citing his noncompliance with their legal team. Uber’s next big date in court is set for October.

Best-Case Scenario: Uber wins the case and powers on with its self-driving project.

Worst Case: Waymo uncovers evidence that Uber used stolen tech in its autonomous vehicle development, leading to a big loss in court. If it does lose, Uber could have to sit out the self-driving race until Waymo has gained back its lead, and/or pay out millions in damages. Meanwhile, Judge Alsup has referred the trade secrets case to the Department of Justice. A criminal investigation could follow, putting Levandowski and other non-fired Uber executives at risk of landing in prison, says Shawn Thompson, a former FBI attorney and federal prosecutor.

2. The Greyball Investigation

In March, The New York Times revealed that Uber had for years been using a program called Greyball, which allowed Uber to keep users who might be working for regulators or law enforcement from using its service. Greyball's purpose: to help Uber avoid detection in cities that prohibited it from operating. Uber admitted to using the program, and now the Department of Justice has opened a criminal probe. (Uber declined to comment on the DOJ investigation.)

If prosecutors determine Uber illegally obstructed authorities from enforcing laws or improperly used credit card information (the company allegedly used credit card data as part of its effort to identify users it was trying to sideline), they could file racketeering charges. But the investigation could also prove benign. “This [kind of investigation] happens a lot, particularly when there are big, high-profile companies and articles about things they’ve done that offend people,” says Timothy Heaphy, a former US attorney now at the law firm Hunton & Williams.