Visitors look at the Extreme Robo-01 electric SUV at the 20th Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China, Dec. 30, 2022.
Zou Wei | Visual China Group | Getty Images
On Tuesday, the U.S. government charged a former apple Employee Weibao Wang stole trade secrets from the company’s self-driving car division, including Apple’s entire “autonomous” source code.
The U.S. government did not identify whom Wang is now working for in the charging documents, but it is alleged Reuters and Some company IntroductionWang is an extreme executive at an electric car joint venture with Chinese internet companies baidu and Chinese automaker Geely.
the us government is worried The Chinese government is using a variety of tactics to steal proprietary information from U.S. companies, including “corrupt insiders.” Tuesday’s announcement is part of a Justice Department task force to “combat efforts by hostile nation-states to illicitly obtain sensitive U.S. technology.”
Federal prosecutors allege Wang agreed to work for a Chinese automaker’s U.S. subsidiary months before leaving Apple in 2018 and stole privileged information involving the development of Apple’s autonomous systems, allegedly to an unnamed Chinese company.
According to a since-deleted LinkedIn profile, Chinese interviewAfter Wang left Apple, he started working at a healthcare artificial intelligence company called Singularity.AI, which has offices in California and China. He then served as CTO at Neolix, a Chinese self-driving car company. Join Jiji in 2021 and be responsible for the company’s intelligent driving business.
In June 2018, law enforcement raided Wang’s apartment on suspicion that he had stolen internal Apple documents. According to documents filed on Tuesday, Wang purchased a plane ticket and flew to China that day. Tuesday’s charges make it impossible for Wang to travel to the United States again without risking arrest.
Wang is the third former Apple employee in China accused of stealing trade secrets from Apple’s self-driving car division. Zhang Xiaolang, who worked at Apple around the same time as Wang, pleaded guilty in August to stealing Apple’s trade secrets. Another former Apple employee, Chen Jizhong, also faces charges, but a trial date for his case has not yet been set.
Both Zhang and Chen failed to leave the country before their respective arrests in 2018 and 2019, when Apple lawyers said they feared they would flee to China.
Apple has It is said been working It has been on self-driving cars since at least 2015, though it has never publicly discussed its goals or plans, nor has it announced any Apple cars. The most public sign of Apple’s efforts is the fleet of fleets equipped with sensors to collect data that can be seen driving around some California communities.
In February of this year, Extremely confirmed that it plans to deliver its first car this year and plans to use ChatGPT-like technology in its vehicles.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment. An Apple representative declined to comment. Baidu and the FBI’s San Francisco office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.