Techie takes a bite out of Apple's self-driving car secrets, fools US sleuths, decamps to China

A 35-year-old former Apple engineer named Weibao Wang has been charged with stealing self-driving car technology from the company and fleeing to China almost five years ago.

Prosecutors allege that Wang secretly worked for an unnamed Chinese company and stole thousands of files containing proprietary information related to autonomous driving systems. The indictment includes six counts of theft or attempted theft of trade secrets.

According to the US Department of Justice, Wang joined Apple in March 2016 as part of the team working on autonomous systems. He signed a confidentiality agreement regarding the project, which was highly confidential within the company at the time.

Wang left Apple on April 16, 2018, and accepted a job offer at a Chinese company involved in self-driving car development over four months prior, unbeknownst to Apple.

In June 2018, law enforcement searched Wang’s home in Mountain View, California, while he was present. Despite claiming that he had no intentions of leaving the US, Wang purchased a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Guangzhou, China, on the same day as the search. Authorities found significant amounts of Apple data related to self-driving car technology on devices seized from Wang’s home.

According to Ismail Ramsey, the US Attorney for the Northern District of California, Wang currently remains in China. If he were to be extradited and convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison for each of the six charges filed against him.

This case marks the third time that former Apple employees have been accused of stealing autonomous technology secrets for China.

Xiaolang Zhang pleaded guilty to similar charges in 2019, while another ex-Apple employee named Jizhong Chen is currently facing similar allegations.

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