Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, has sued engineer Alex Khatilov for allegedly stealing the company's Warp Drive software, which is used to automate purchases and other systems, within 3 days of starting work in late December 2020.
According to the lawsuit, Khatilov copied "thousands" of files containing scripts associated with Rapid Drive to his personal "Dropbox" account.
The Rap program includes many important programs that automate a number of processes for Tesla from procurement to manufacturing to warehouse, and it is similar to the known enterprise resource planning systems, "ERP".
While most automakers use software from well-known third-party organizations such as SAP, Tesla decided instead to build its own software from scratch.
The company also accused Khatilov of trying to cover up his actions. The lawsuit also states that he lied about this, claiming to transfer personal documents only when investigators questioned him, and then claiming that he “forgot” the files when confronted with evidence, and Tesla said that the engineer tried to delete the Dropbox app and other files at the beginning Investigation.
Tesla did not say whether Khatilov was believed to have coordinated with others.
However, she cautioned that she had "not disclosed" all of Khatilov's suspicious actions, and that he might still be sharing the Tesla files.
The employee was forced to work remotely due to the pandemic, which made it difficult to verify the files had been deleted.
The automaker has advocated heavily to protect its technology in the past. It has sued Rivian and Zoox for employing Tesla employees that it says took company secrets with them.
This is in addition to the prosecution of individuals such as Martin Tripp, whom Elon Musk described as a "saboteur".
And if Khatilov's case is correct, it will likely increase Tesla's concerns about stealing trade secrets. If people apply for jobs solely to steal automation tools, Tesla may feel the danger facing its autonomous and electric-driving technologies.