Apple has sued a former worker for stealing the source code of its autonomous driving system. What is known about the case?
Investing in innovation is essential for manufacturers, whatever the sector in which they compete. The technology developed can involve billions of euros in investment, so leaking the results can be very dangerous for the company itself. Apple is one of the leading companies in this field, so data loss can be particularly damaging due to the high number of competitors out there. Espionage is one of the problems that a technology company must face every day.
Today it has been possible to learn how a former Apple worker He has just been accused of theft of compromised information. Apparently, the first investigations suggest that it is data referring to the autonomous driving system that the company has been developing for years. The source code is the skeleton of any software, so it is very important data that could mean millions of dollars in losses. Are we facing the theft of information tending to levels 3, 4 and 5 of driving autonomy?
Let’s see what has happened in this particular case, what is the evidence that Apple has provided to justify the complaint to the former employee and, of course, to what extent we are facing a particularly sensitive technology within the apple firm. Who was going to say that data of this kind would be leaked taking into account its competitiveness in markets such as telephony or information technology?
Apple sues a former worker for leaking data from its autonomous driving system
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office for the Northern District of California has issued an announcement in which you can see how Apple has filed a complaint against the former employee Weibao Wang. This engineer, who was mainly dedicated to the section of the software, has been accused of stealing a whole series of data regarding the autonomous driving system that Apple has been developing for several years. It is a movement that is based on signing a contract with a competing company while he was developing functions in a compromised area.
According to the information that has been known, this worker He developed his work within Apple for 2 years, from 2016 to 2018. The problem begins when in 2017 he signs a contract with a competing company, an act that is considered detrimental to Apple due to the conflict of interest. It should be noted that Apple was not aware of this fact at any time, which may be an indication that compromised information was being obtained to be communicated to the third company.
After discovering what happened during the last months of employment, he was fired. In the same way, this fact was reported to the Authorities, leading to an inspection of the home in search of evidence. Besides, Weibao Wang went to live in GuangzhouChina, another piece of evidence that would show that he would be escaping justice.
Apple has wanted to show calm in this regard, stating that only old information was accessed. The Titan project remains unknown for the most part, since the company has never shown itself for the work of bringing autonomous driving technology to the market or, simply, a different car from what is already on the market. Some sources suggest that this hidden project could shed light in the year 2026.