Back in 2018, former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang was arrested at San Jose International Airport where he was going to board a last-minute flight to China. Zhang was accused of transferring a 25-page document that includes the engineering schematics of a circuit board for the company's self-driving vehicle, along with technical manuals describing Apple's prototype, to his wife's laptop. He was also accused of stealing circuit boards and a Linux server from the company's development labs. Now, Zhang has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft of trade secrets in San Jose federal court, according to CNBC. The news organization has obtained a court document (PDF) summarizing the proceedings in which Zhang changed his plea -- he originally pleaded not guilty when he was indicted in 2018.

According to Bloomberg, Zhang admitted that he downloaded Apple's driverless car files, so he could still have access to them even if he's not with the company anymore. Reuters also said that he admitted to taking hardware from the lab, because he wanted a new position within Apple and thought it could help him. Zhang designed and tested circuit boards for analyzing sensor data at Apple and was privy to top secret information about its driverless car development. He informed the company that he was permanently moving back to China to work for local EV startup Xiaopeng Motors after he got back from his paternity leave. Apple officials were quick to inform authorities of possible theft, because Zhang's supervisor noticed an increase in his network activities and discovered that he visited its HQ in the middle of his paternity leave when he was supposed to be in China.

In a world where everyone wants a piece of the growing self-driving industry, we might have to get used to reports of betrayal and trade secret theft. US authorities have just arrested a former Apple employee for stealing the tech giant's self-driving trade secrets. Xiaolang Zhang was charged with stealing circuit boards and a computer server from Cupertino's self-driving car lab. He's also being accused of downloading a 25-page blueprint for a driverless car circuit board, which served as the basis for the criminal charge, though he reportedly downloaded some technical manuals and reports to his wife's computer, as well. According to Bloomberg, Zhang admitted that he downloaded Apple's driverless car files, so he could still have access to them even if he's not with the company anymore.

SAN FRANCISCO – Uber was either a cheating competitor willing to break the law to win the race to develop self-driving cars, or the victim of an unproven conspiracy theory stitched together by its main rival, Waymo, jurors heard in opening statements of a trade secrets trial on Monday. The first salvos were delivered to a 10-person jury in San Francisco federal court in a civil lawsuit that could help determine who emerges in the forefront of the autonomous car business nearly a year after Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving car unit Waymo sued rival Uber Technologies Inc. The case hinges on whether Uber used apparent trade secrets to advance its autonomous vehicle program. Waymo's allegation is that its former engineer, Anthony Levandowski, downloaded more than 14,000 confidential files in December 2015 containing designs for autonomous vehicles before going to work for Uber and leading its self-driving car unit in 2016. "Waymo wants you to believe that Anthony Levandowski got together with Uber as part of some grand conspiracy to cheat and take trade secrets," Uber attorney Bill Carmody said in his opening statement to the jury.

Google's autonomous car unit, Waymo, alleges one of its ex-employees took its self-driving car tech and gave it to Uber. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Google's autonomous car unit, Waymo, alleges one of its ex-employees took its self-driving car tech and gave it to Uber.

Otto is a self-driving truck company started by Google veterans and bought by Uber last year. SAN FRANCISCO -- In charges that could delay Uber's chances of delivering the first commercial self-driving trucks, Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving car company Waymo has filed suit against the company for trade secret misappropriation, patent infringement and unfair competition. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Waymo, the new name of Google's self-driving car unit, says former Google self-driving car engineer Anthony Levandowski stole plans and technical specifications from Waymo before leaving the company. Levandowski founded self-driving truck company Otto last year.