Ex-Apple Engineer Flees to China After Allegedly Stealing Autonomous Car Tech Data

The U.S. Department of Justice has charge a formerApplesoftware railroad engineer for allegedly slip or assay to steal technology for at least four months before handing in his resignation at the fellowship . The indictment allege that Weibao Wang , 35 , relayed Apple ’s information to an unknown Chinese company that was working to develop self - driving cars .

Wang started working for Apple ’s notation squad in 2016 and was consecrate “ broad access ” to company databases that only 2,700 of Apple ’s 135,000 employees had access to , according to the indictment . He worked for the caller for one class before handing in his surrender posting in April 2018 but during his exit consultation , Wang did not inform his supervisory program of his programme be active frontwards .

But an investigation by and by found that in late November 2017 , more than four months before he pass in his notice , Wang signed an acceptance missive for a full - clock time stave applied scientist position at a Chinese - based caller . One month after Wang had impart Apple , fellowship interpreter find that Wang had accessed databases containing sensitive and confidential information relating to its autonomous systems ’ software in the month predate his departure from the company , the bill of indictment says .

Image: Feng Li (Getty Images)

A lookup of Wang ’s Mountain View , California home bring out “ several personal machine contain large measure of data taken from Apple prior to his departure , ” the indictment says , adding that his “ personal desktop computing machine and personal international backbreaking parkway each contained various secret , proprietary material from the Project . ”

Read the Indictment Here :

When authorisation searched Wang ’s home , he reportedly check them that he had no plans to leave the state , but was find to have purchased a one - way plane ticket to Guangzhou , China from San Francisco International Airport later that day . The flight set forth at roughly 11:55 p.m. that night , according to the indictment .

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Wang is the third former Apple employee facing commission for allegedly stealing autonomous trade information and add it to China and comes afterXiaolang Zhangeventually pleaded guilty last yr as part of a plea concord to steal trade secrets from Apple ’s car sectionalization . Jizhong Chen , another former employee who work as a hardware developer locomotive engineer on Apple ’s autonomous vehicles project in 2018 , is now face federal charge for allegedly stealing tender data and provide it to China in 2019 . Chen previously plead not guilty .

Wang is consign with six separate enumeration for his alleged role in stealing or essay to steal Apple ’s information including the entire autonomy source code , tracking for an autonomous system , conduct provision for autonomous systems , hardware descriptions , computer architecture innovation for sovereign system of rules , and the motion planner for an self-directed organisation . If deport from China and convicted , Wang faces ten year in prison for each count .

Apple did not immediately respond to Gizmodo ’s request for comment .

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