Uber Technologies Inc. filed court documents showing that self-driving car company Waymo sought arbitration against former employee Anthony Levandowski, Bloomberg News reported March 29.

The arbitration with Levandowski began in October 2016, prior to the Alphabet Inc. unit's lawsuit against Uber, the report said, citing the filing. Waymo reportedly sought arbitration over Levandowski's alleged theft of about 14,000 confidential data from Google Inc.'s self-driving project and for swaying co-workers to work for his new venture. Last month, Waymo sued Uber and its recently acquired trucking company Otto, which Levandowski co-founded, for the same claims.

Uber is petitioning to send Waymo's trade-secret theft and unfair competition claims to arbitration due to the broad provisions of the Alphabet unit's arbitration agreement with Levandowski. Bringing the case into arbitration would close the case to the public. Meanwhile, Uber wants to continue its legal battle on Waymo's patent-infringement claims in court.