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Chinese engineer working for Apple charged with leaking self-driving technology

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A Chinese engineer who worked for Apple in the past was belatedly handed over to trial in the United States on charges of leaking self-driving car technology.

According to CNBC on the 16th (local time), the US Department of Justice announced that it had prosecuted Wang Weibao, who worked as a software engineer for Apple, on charges of stealing Apple’s self-driving car technology from a Chinese company.

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Mr. Wang served as an engineer from 2016 to 2018 and faces six charges, including stealing or attempting to steal Apple’s entire autonomous driving source code, tracking system, autonomous driving system action plan, and hardware description.

Wang was able to gain extensive access to company data based on privileges granted to only 2,700 of Apple’s 135,000 employees, the study found.

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Prosecutors suspect that Wang accepted a recruitment offer from a Chinese company developing self-driving car technology four months before leaving Apple, and stole a vast amount of sensitive technology and source code.

In June 2018, the investigative agency conducted a search and seizure of Wang’s home in California, USA, and confirmed that a large amount of confidential data had been leaked.

However, Wang is said to have left San Francisco for Guangzhou, China, after the seizure. U.S. prosecutors believe Wang is still in China, and he explained that if convicted, he could face 10 years in prison.

This is the third time U.S. prosecutors have prosecuted a Chinese national who worked for Apple for leaking technology related to self-driving cars.

Similarly, Zhang Xiaolang, who retired from working at Apple, was indicted in 2018 for leaking self-driving technology and was convicted in federal court in San Jose, California. However, Jang also fled to China.

In 2019, Cheon Ji-joong, a hardware engineer for Apple’s self-driving car project, was indicted for leaking confidential information and is currently on trial.

Source: Donga

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