After nearly four years of arrest, a former Apple engineer has pleaded guilty to stealing the company's trade secrets.
According to CNBC, former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang is accused of stealing trade secrets related to the company's secret Apple Car project. In July 2018, Mr. Zhang pleaded not guilty after he was found to have downloaded a 25-page internal document of a circuit board designed for use in a self-driving car. On Monday, Mr. Zhang pleaded guilty in federal court.
Apple Car is still a secret of the "Apple House".
Details of Mr. Zhang's plea to the US government have not been made public, but he could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for November.
Mr. Zhang is a member of Apple's "Project Titan" team, responsible for designing and testing circuit boards that analyze data from various vehicle sensors. These are very important parts of the self-driving car's infrastructure, and Mr. Zhang was granted access to a database containing the trade secrets and intellectual property of "Apple Defect". The circuit board diagram he was carrying at the time of his arrest is considered one of the most valuable secrets associated with projects that rely on cutting-edge technology.
Apple is still investing and researching self-driving cars.
After being found to have downloaded documents and information from the company's server, Mr. Zhang was arrested at San Jose International Airport. At that time, this man was preparing to board a flight to Beijing (China).
So far, four years after Mr. Zhang's arrest, Apple has remained tight-lipped about its self-driving electric car division. According to documents from the FBI in 2018, 5,000 Apple employees were aware of the project, and 2,700 had access to the project's documents and databases.
Internal software used by Apple helps the company track down employees who know about a certain project and are forced to attend live training on trade secrets. Before that, Mr. Zhang resigned from his job and traveled to China, then suddenly quit. This man said he needed to return to China to take care of his mother. He himself told Apple that he was going to work for the Chinese electric car company - Xmotors, and Apple immediately blocked his access to the company's network.
Currently, it is not clear when the Apple Car will reach consumers. According to some sources, 2025 will be the earliest time this self-driving electric car will appear.