Former Apple Engineer pleads guilty to stealing trade secrets of Apple Car

An ex-Apple engineer has pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from Apple’s autonomous vehicle project. Xiaolang Zhang, a former Apple employee charged by the FBI in 2018 for stealing trade secrets about Apple’s autonomous vehicle project, pleaded guilty in a federal court in San Jose on Monday.

At the time, it was reported that Zhang had taken parental leave from Apple and visited China during this time. When his parental leave at Apple was due to end, he informed the company that he would not be returning. Xiaolang Zhang was charged on Aug. 22 at a court in San Jose and could face up to 10 years in jail and a $250,000 fine. 

Engineer pleads guilty to stealing secrets of Apple Car

Zhang was hired by Apple in 2015 where he would eventually work on the hardware for Apple’s secretive autonomous vehicle project. Zhang stole the trade secrets while preparing to work for Chinese electric vehicle startup Xiaopeng Motors, also known as XPeng. The FBI arrested Zhang at San Jose airport, California, on 7 July, while he was en route to China. 

During his time at Apple, Zhang worked on multiple products including designing and testing circuit boards capable of analyzing data from sensors. One of the areas of specific focus was Apple’s Project Titan self-driving car technology.

Through the investigation, it was revealed that Zhang had downloaded numerous files from Apple’s servers prior to his departure. Most notably, this included a 25-page document with engineering schematics of a circuit board for an autonomous vehicle. Among other things, he had also downloaded information about prototypes and testing hardware. Apple found that he transferred around 24GB of data to his wife’s laptop via AirDrop.

According to his indictment, Zhang pled guilty to a single count of theft of trade secrets in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1832(a)(1). His sentencing is scheduled for November 14. As per the US, the felony of trade secrets theft can be punished with a maximum penalty of 10 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

In the electronic industry, schematics for circuit designs are considered one of the most valuable things. Its value manifolds when it belongs to a project that is yet to be out in the open. The increased competition between American and Chinese companies has led to an increase in these corporate espionage cases.