A former Apple employee accused of stealing a driverless car

Federal prosecutors accused a former Apple employee of stealing trade secrets related to Apple's autonomous vehicle program.

Xiaolang Zhang allegedly worked on the secret project of self-driving Apple. Zhang left Apple in April saying that he was going to work for a Chinese electric vehicle company called Xpeng Motors. He is accused of copying more than 40 GB of intellectual property from Apple on his wife's laptop before leaving the company, according to court documents. The documents do not accuse Xpeng Motors of wrongdoing.

In a statement, Xpeng said that he was "stunned and indignant" by the charges against Zhang, who had joined the company in May. Xpeng said that he conducted an investigation, advised by the law firm Morrison and Foerster, and "very quickly thereafter, terminated Xiaolang's employment for just cause" . Apple has not responded to a request for comment.

For several years, Apple has been developing autonomous vehicle technology, although the company has been discreet about its plans and ambitions. Bloomberg reported in January that the company had registered 27 autonomous driving test vehicles with the California Automotive Department. CEO Tim Cook acknowledged last year that the company was developing autonomous car technology; This follows reports that Apple had abandoned its plan to build its own car

. The arrest of Zhang comes as tensions between the United States and China grow, mainly around the treatment of intellectual property. China requires that foreign technology companies that want to do business in the country establish partnerships with domestic companies and share or license intellectual property with these partners. Many companies believe that Chinese companies are using this process, called technology transfer, to steal their trade secrets. The Trump administration fees are partly a response to this practice, but China has so far refused to terminate it.

The Zhang case highlights other ways for Chinese companies to get their hands on the intellectual property of US companies. At the court documents, Zhang was hired by Apple to work on the autonomous vehicle project in 2015. In April, Zhang took a paternity leave and went to China. On April 30, he informed Apple that he was resigning from the company and that he was planning to return to China to get closer to his family and work for Xpeng Motors.

In an internal investigation, Apple discovered that Zhang had downloaded "copious" pages. information, including Apple IP from the databases, in the days before his resignation and, against the company's policy, had taken the Apple property during his paternity leave.

Zhang admitted to Apple's security department that he had taken away a Linux server owned by Apple and had transferred data to his wife's laptop. He said that he wanted to review the data for his own education, hoping it would help him find another job at Apple. He made the server and brought the laptop to Apple for review.

Zhang was arrested on July 7 at the Mineta San Jose International Airport. He had booked a flight to Hangzhou, China.

According to its website, Xpeng Motors was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, China. He received an investment from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba last year, according to Tech in Asia, as well as Huawei, Xiaomi and Foxconn, according to PanDaily. The company announced a car with "self-parking" and other features of the autonomous car at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

UPDATE, July 10, 23:00: This article has been updated to include a statement from Xpeng

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