Xiaoloang Zhang, a former Apple employee, pleaded guilty to stealing computer files with trade secrets about the Cupertino company’s autonomous vehicle division, where he worked from 2015 to 2018, specifically on the development of the Apple Car.
Zhang pleaded guilty in federal court in San Jose, California, and under US law, stealing trade secrets carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, as well as a possible $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for November 14.
The investigation into the former employee began in July 2018, when the FBI filed charges against him and arrested him at the San José airport, where the engineer planned to fly to China to start working at the Chinese autonomous vehicle startup Xpeng, a the one that would presumably give him the information.
During the investigation, Apple determined that Zhang transferred about 24GB of “highly problematic” data to his wife’s computer via AirDrop, along with circuit boards and reference manuals, among other secrets.
Closed-circuit cameras at Apple also caught Zhang breaking into the company’s self-driving car labs and stealing hardware, which was later identified as circuit boards and a Linux server, according to the complaint.
Apple initially became suspicious of Zhang after he took paternity leave and traveled to China. When he returned, it is explained in the 2018 complaint, he submitted his resignation with the argument of returning to his country to take care of his mother.
It is worth mentioning that this is not the only person accused of stealing Apple’s automotive secrets, as Jizhonh Chenm, another former employee, also faces charges of alleged theft of trade secrets from the division since 2019 and although he is represented by the same lawyer as Zhang, he has not pleaded guilty.
On the other hand, Tesla has also suffered from this type of problem, since three years ago the company claimed that a former employee uploaded the source code of its autopilot system to his iCloud account and then took that information to Xpeng, which said to respect “fully the intellectual property rights and confidential information of any third party.”
The documents gave birth to the development of an Apple Car, a side that the company has not wanted to make public, as it has even mentioned that it is not working in this vertical. According to the documents, the company had about 5,000 employees who knew about the project, and 2,7000 principals, that is, with access to materials and databases.
Rumors have recently surfaced that his car could be announced for 2025, plus it would have no steering wheel and a spacious limousine-style interior.
However, the project has been complicated for the company, due to constant rotation of leaders and engineers, as well as technical problems and lack of trust on the part of the company’s top managers.
