Apple is facing a new lawsuit over its autonomous car project. The US Department of Justice briefly accused a former company employee of stealing self-driving car technology. Weibao Wang, who worked at Apple for a year, reportedly obtained the company’s confidential files illegally.
Apple loses classified information for autonomous car to China
According to the dossier prepared by the Justice Department, the former Apple engineer seized the company’s autonomous tracking systems, behavior planning systems, and system hardware disclosures. This accusation marks the third time that confidential information belonging to the Apple Car project has been stolen.
According to the indictment prepared in the USA, Wang was directed to Apple through an unknown Chinese autonomous driving technology company. It is stated that he seized a significant amount of sensitive technology and source code during his four-month career. He allegedly used a database that only 2700 employees had access to.
The Justice Department’s investigation also included a search of Wang’s home in 2018. During the search, authorities discovered that there was a significant amount of confidential information belonging to Apple. This evidence further supported the allegations against Wang.
Despite the evidence, the former employee managed to escape to China. Prosecutor Ismail Ramsey, who led the investigation, wanted Wang to be extradited and to explain with which institutions he shared the stolen information.
Apple is running a file called Project Titan related to the automobile project. So far, a total of 149 patents have been included in this file. The last application made to the World Intellectual Property Organization is about cornering lights.
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