Tesla sues ex-Autopilot chief for stealing company secrets

Tesla is suing its former Autopilot director, claiming he took confidential, proprietary information about its self-driving technology and destroyed evidence to cover his tracks, according to a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara Superior Court. It alleges Sterling Anderson also attempted to recruit at least a dozen employees, in violation of his contract, all in an attempt to create a competing autonomous vehicle startup called "Aurora." Also named in the suit is Google's former self-driving director Chris Urmson, Anderson's partner in the venture. Tesla's Model S and Model X vehicles have an autonomous driving system that gathers data from a dozen ultrasonic sensors, a camera and radar, in conjunction with GPS data. The company just rolled out a new Autopilot update that gives the vehicles even more autonomous capability. Ex-Googler Urmson is reportedly an advocate of fully self-driving vehicles, having lobbied congress to allow cars on public roads without pedals or a steering wheel.