AUTONEWS

Ex-Apple engineer is arrested in the US, he was in possession of sensitive information that would be sold to electric car maker Xpeng in China

A former Apple engineer was arrested at an airport in the United States on his way to a new job at Xpeng in China. Now he has confessed and is at risk of 10 years in prison.

The prosecutor alleges that the man stole a 25-page document that contained secret information about Apple's development of self-driving cars, including drawings on a circuit board.

The man was hired by Apple in 2015 as a hardware engineer within the company's automotive program. In April 2018, he resigned to start a new role at automaker Xpeng in China.

Suspicions were raised against the man and he was arrested in July 2018 at the San Jose, California airport before boarding a direct flight to China.

Xpeng tells Bloomberg that they have no part in the crime and therefore don't know details about the case either.

The man initially pleaded guilty during a court hearing this week and now faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Another similar case... Alongside this case is an ongoing investigation into another former Apple engineer who also allegedly stole trade secrets about autonomous vehicles. The FBI claims they found thousands of secret documents and about a hundred photographs taken at Apple's development department in the man's possession.

This man had also applied for a job with a Chinese car manufacturer in connection with the theft of classified material and was arrested before boarding the flight to China. The trial against him begins on August 29.

Mundoquatrorodas