There are reports that the lower court in Northern California has made a ruling on the case of Xiaolang Zhang, a former engineer who had worked on Apple’s Project Titan, the self-driving car project. Zhang was found guilty of stealing Apple’s trade secrets when he moved to work for Xpeng, a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer. He has been sentenced to 120 days in jail and placed under 3 years of probation, in addition to paying a fine of $146,984.
Zhang was arrested by the FBI in 2018 while he was traveling to China (original details). Initially, he informed Apple that he needed to take leave to take care of his family in China, but later he notified them of his resignation. This prompted Apple to investigate and they discovered a significant amount of data being taken out. They coordinated and apprehended Zhang before he could travel to China. There is no information available regarding whether he had shared this data with Xpeng, but the fact that he tried to take out valuable information speaks volumes.
Initially, Zhang denied all allegations, but during the court proceedings, he confessed to every accusation in the year 2022.
TLDR: Xiaolang Zhang, a former Apple engineer, has been sentenced to 120 days in jail, 3 years of probation, and a fine of $146,984 for stealing Apple’s trade secrets related to the Project Titan self-driving car project. Zhang was caught trying to take the stolen data with him when he left Apple to work for Xpeng, a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer. He confessed to the charges during the court proceedings.
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