The Baidu boss has been accused of stealing self-driving car technology from Apple

A former Apple engineer and an executive at an electric car startup owned by Chinese tech giant Baidu have been accused of stealing self-driving technology from Apple, As reported earlier by CNBC. Tuesday, The US Department of Justice charged Weibo accused Wang of “stealing and attempting to steal” self-driving technology from Apple.

As noted before indictment, Wang began working at Apple as a software engineer in 2016, signing a confidentiality agreement and working on the company’s secret self-driving project. Wang resigned from his position in 2018, but unbeknownst to Apple, Wang accepted work for “a US-based subsidiary of another company that was headquartered in the People’s Republic of China and was developing self-driving cars” four months before he left.

After Wang left Apple, the company found that Wang had accessed the company’s confidential databases days before he left and law enforcement conducted a search of his home. While Wang complied with the search warrant, he boarded a plane for China that night. Law enforcement later discovered that “Wang had accessed confidential and proprietary information” about Apple’s standalone systems, including source code, architectural design, motion diagram, and more.

despite of indictment He doesn’t say where Wang accepted the job during his time at Apple, a Reuters Article published last year He names Wang as the head of intelligent driving at Jidu, an EV subsidiary owned by Baidu, and notes that he previously worked on an Apple EV project. a company appearance Spotted by CNBC also reports that Wang is an executive at Jidu.

Wang faces up to 10 years behind bars. He must also pay $250,000 or “twice the total profit or loss resulting from the scheme” for each theft or attempted trade secret theft.

“Innovation is alive and well in Silicon Valley — in fact, throughout the Northern District of California,” US Attorney General Ishmael J. Ramsey says in a statement. “Unfortunately, there will always be those who deceive the system by stealing and profiting from the fruits of other people’s labor. Wang’s trial is just one example.”

This isn’t the first time Apple has been caught stealing trade secrets related to its car project. In 2018 and 2019, two employees were accused of stealing confidential details from Apple’s self-driving project, while one engineer, Xiaolang Zhang, was accused of feeding them to Chinese startup Xiaopeng Motors. Zhang engaged in stealing Apple’s trade secrets last year.