Former Apple Engineer Pleads Guilty Of Stealing Self-Driving Technology Trade Secrets

Apple's trade secrets were stolen by one of its former engineers. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - A former Apple Inc engineer on Monday, August 22 pleaded guilty to the theft of trade secrets. He is one of two people accused of stealing trade secrets from Apple's nascent self-driving car program.

US federal prosecutors allege that Xiaolang Zhang downloaded blueprints of Apple's self-driving technology, after he declared his intention to work at a self-driving car startup in China. He then booked a last-minute flight to China. But he was arrested at the San Jose airport, after passing through a security checkpoint.

Xpeng, the Chinese electric car manufacturer that Zhang joined after leaving Apple in 2018, said on its Sina Weibo (Twitter-like app) account, on Tuesday, August 23, that the company has no dispute with Apple over the matter. They also stated that they were not involved and responsible for Zhang's case in any way.

Zhang initially pleaded not guilty to the charges. However, according to court documents on Monday, he had reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and changed his plea to guilty. The plea deal was approved and a sentence will be set for him in November.

Zhang's lawyer confirmed the plea deal. But he declined to comment further. Apple and the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

Meanwhile, Jizhong Chen, another former Apple engineer charged with theft of trade secrets, pleaded not guilty. He will be tried on August 29.

The actions taken by a number of engineers of Chinese descent also show the growing suspicion that Beijing has been trying hard to steal advanced technology from US companies.