Tesla filed a lawsuit against a former employee, claiming that he stole company secrets

Today, Tesla has sued Guangzhi Cao, a former engineer who is accused of copying over 300,000 files containing the source code associated with the software for Tesla autopilot. According to his LinkedIn profile, Cao is a software engineer, and before that he worked at Apple to create a first-generation dual-camera iPhone. He joined Tesla in 2017 as a member of the Tesla Autopilot AI / Vision team.

Tesla accuses Cao of stealing information around January when he was preparing to leave the company to join Xiaopeng Motors Technology Company Ltd (also known as Xpeng Motors) in China. In addition, Tesla lawyers on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against four former employees and an American autopilot startup Zoox Inc, alleging that employees stole confidential information and trade secrets "to develop warehousing, logistics and inventory management operations."

There are several well-known firms among Xiaopeng investors, including Alibaba and Foxconn. First of all, the company operates in China, despite the fact that last year it showed an electric car in Las Vegas. With Tesla entering the Chinese market, Xiaopeng will face strong competition. Tesla is building a car assembly plant in Shanghai, competing directly with Xiaopeng and other Chinese companies in the world's largest electric car market.
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Xiaopeng spokeswoman Marie Chung said in a statement that the company was not aware of Cao’s alleged misconduct, and that the company had launched an internal investigation into the matter.

The company “fully respects the rights of third parties to intellectual property and confidential information. The company complies with and will comply with [all] applicable laws and regulations, ”she said in a statement.

The lawsuit alleges that Xiaopeng hired at least five former Tesla employees. The subsidiary Xiaopeng has also previously hired someone whom Apple accused of stealing trade secrets related to their autopilot project.

Such lawsuits are becoming more frequent, as companies around the world tend to create fully autonomous cars and become market leaders. For example, not so long ago, Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., sued Uber after a former employee stole thousands of secret documents and became head of the autopilot development department at Uber. Later, Uber paid $ 245 million to settle the case.