A former Apple employee has been accused of stealing the company’s self-driving car secrets and trying to flee to China with them.
The BBC reports that Xiaolang Zhang worked on Apple’s driverless car project but allegedly planned to move to Chinese autonomous vehicle start-up Xiaopeng Motors, the company says in court documents. It adds that he was arrested at San Jose airport and been charged by the FBI with stealing trade secrets.
The BBC adds that Xiaopeng Motors says it did not receive any “sensitive information” from Mr Zhang and said it was co-operating with the FBI.
Zhang is accused of downloading a 25-page “blueprint” for a self-driving car circuit board to his personal computer.
