Xiaolang Zhang, the former Apple employee who pleaded guilty for theft of information on the development of the company's autonomous vehicle, was sentenced to 120 days in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Zhang was arrested in 2018 at San Jose International Airport as he was preparing to board a flight to China. He initially pleaded not guilty until he changed his mind in 2022 and admitted to stealing trade secrets. In addition to serving time behind bars, he must also pay restitution amounting to $146,984, according to the court document announcing his conviction first seen by 9to5Mac. Zhang initially faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The former Apple employee worked as a hardware engineer for the company's decade-old autonomous vehicle initiative named Project Titan. Based on Apple's complaint, Zhang transferred a 25-page document containing technical schematics for a circuit board for the company's self-driving vehicle to his wife's laptop via AirDrop. He also kept a copy of the technical manuals describing Apple's prototype of this laptop, in addition to stealing circuit boards and a Linux server from the company's development labs.
Zhang resigned from Apple after paternity leave and a trip to China, telling the iPhone maker that he would work in the country for XPeng Motors. This reportedly sparked an investigation, since XPeng is also working on self-driving technology, which revealed that Zhang had been filmed on surveillance video taking materials from Apple's labs and transferring files to his computer. female. He is expected to turn himself in by June 19, after which he will be sent to a minimum-security facility as close as possible to his home in San Jose, California.
Apple's self-driving vehicle has been in the works for a decade, but it has yet to release a product that consumers can buy. Bloomberg Marc Gurman recently reported that the company has changed its plans and is now developing an electric vehicle like Tesla's instead of a full-fledged autonomous vehicle. The long-awaited Apple Car is now expected to debut no earlier than 2028.