The man would have stolen many documents as well as printed circuits used in the prototypes of the autonomous vehicle developed by Apple.
The apple company is known for the culture of absolute secrecy that surrounds the development of its products, and it does not laugh in the event of a leak.
A suspicious departure that questions internally
In 2018, an employee named Xiaolang Zhang was arrested at San Jose International Airport as he intended to board a flight to China.
Earlier, the man had presented his resignation to the management of Apple, but the company had quickly expressed doubts as to the real reasons behind this hasty departure. Xiaolang Zhang had indicated during his interview that he wanted to return to China to take care of his mother.
The developer had also told his future ex-employer his plan to work for XPeng Motors, a Chinese company specializing in autonomous vehicles.
The announcement came as Mr. Zhang was apparently working on Apple’s self-driving vehicle project, in the team responsible for testing circuit boards for the various sensors placed on the car. Perfect timing, therefore, which raised serious questions for the Californian group and led to the opening of an internal investigation.
Former employee faces 10 years in prison
Apple members didn’t have to look far and discovered that Xiaolang Zhang had recovered several gigabytes of documents, downloaded to his device via AirDrop wireless transfer technology.
Better still, the man would have got his hands on technical diagrams of printed circuits being studied at Apple, as well as on prototypes and a Linux server used in the research laboratories. CCTV footage confirms these claims and led Apple to sue its former employee.
After several years of pleading his innocence, Xiaolang Zhang has finally pleaded guilty to the theft of industrial secrets and must now await his trial, scheduled for next November. The man faces a heavy sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
For its part, Apple remains perfectly silent on its automotive projects. All we know is that the manufacturer would have abandoned the idea of releasing an autonomous car and would focus on an autonomous driving system, which could be presented in 2025. In the meantime, Apple will fundamentally review its CarPlay interface, with a more integrated into the various screens of partner vehicles.
Source : Engadget
6