Tesla is suing a former employee for the stolen company information, reports CNBC. The company says software engineer Alex Khatilov stole files from Tesla’s internal network related to its Warp Drive software, which is used to automate many of the company’s business processes. Tesla claims in the lawsuit that Khatilov moved files to his personal Dropbox account, and that he was one of only a few Tesla employees who had access to the files.
According to the lawsuit, Khatilov told Tesla investigators he “forgot” to move the files to his personal Dropbox when they confronted him. He has the New York Post in an interview that he inadvertently moved the files to Dropbox, and that he was not aware that Tesla had filed a lawsuit against him until the newspaper contacted him.
Tesla has not hesitated to sue to protect its own data in the past; in December, the company agreed with former process technician Martin Tripp, who admitted to leaking confidential information to a reporter. In 2019, Tesla sued the self-governing company Zoox, accusing four Zoox employees – who had previously worked at Tesla – of taking confidential documents. The case was settled last April, and Zoox admitted that “some of its new Tesla hires” were in possession of Tesla documents. And the case against Guangzhi Cao, who accuses Tesla of stealing files related to Tesla’s Autopilot system, continues.