Apple's Chinese employee was arrested before switching to Xpeng Motors and accused of stealing Apple's autonomous driving trade secrets

On July 7, former Apple engineer Zhang Xiaolang was arrested in the United States on charges of stealing Apple's trade secrets in the autonomous vehicle project. Before his arrest, Zhang Xiaolang was preparing to board a flight to China at San Jose Airport in California. It is reported that Zhang Xiaolang was preparing to join the domestic startup company Xiaopeng Motors.

Xiaopeng Motors issued an official statement saying that it was not aware of the incident before and will continue to pay attention to the matter and cooperate with the investigation. In addition, Xiaopeng Motors emphasized that it attaches great importance to intellectual property protection.

If convicted, Zhang Xiaolang could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Zhang Xiaolang joined Apple in December 2015 and worked as a hardware engineer in the team developing self-driving cars. Apple kept this research strictly confidential. Due to work reasons, Zhang Xiaolang was allowed to access a large number of confidential internal databases.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.