Tesla requests to release the source code of Xiaopeng automobile

Posted 2020-10-21 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

Recently, foreign media reported that they wanted to release the source code to prove that their former employees (now working in Xiaopeng automobile) stole the company's automatic driving source code. In response, Xiaopeng released an official statement saying it refused to provide the source code, saying Tesla "showed a clear bullying behavior towards a young competitor.". The contents of the statement are as follows: Yan Zheng stated that recently, Tesla filed many unreasonable claims to Xiaopeng automobile, such as providing all the automatic driving source codes up to now, after launching a civil lawsuit against Cao Guangzhi, a former employee, a visual scientist and a current employee of Xiaopeng automobile in March 2019. In the past year, Xiaopeng auto has not concealed anything and has been trying to assist in the investigation of the case. But so far, there is no evidence that Xiaopeng automobile has abused trade secrets or other improper behaviors. Therefore, Xiaopeng automobile rejected its request and issued a solemn statement as follows: 1. Xiaopeng automobile is not a party to the case. For more than a year, Xiaopeng automobile not only provided a lot of assistance to the case, but also actively provided the electronic backup of Cao Guangzhi's working computer. Xiaopeng automobile also allows Tesla to access the company's source code repository for evidence collection under the court protection order as of March 21, 2019 (the date when Cao Guangzhi was sued by Tesla). 2. Xiaopeng auto hired a professional third party to investigate the legal evidence on the day it learned of the lawsuit. Its forensic investigation and analysis show no evidence that any Tesla source code, trade secret or protected confidential information is transmitted to the company and its system. It will be up to the judge and jury in this case to decide whether Tesla's actions against Cao Guangzhi are against the laws of the United States. 3. Xiaopeng automobile always respects and pays attention to protecting its own and others' intellectual property achievements. As the first tier of new car manufacturing enterprises in China, Xiaopeng auto carries out independent full closed-loop independent research and development in automatic driving. Its achievements have been reflected in Xiaopeng G3 and P7, and a complete and differentiated automatic driving technology system has been formed. Based on the above, Xiaopeng automobile firmly defends in accordance with the law and refuses many unreasonable requests put forward by Tesla, such as requiring Xiaopeng automobile to provide all source codes. During the one-year period since the lawsuit, Tesla's efforts to show bullying behavior towards a young competitor, rather than trying to solve the legal case against Dr. Cao, are regrettable. We firmly believe that unjustified accusations will not slow down the pace of independent research and development of cars, and Xiaopeng will continue to actively promote the popularization and evolution of intelligent gas vehicles under the integration of professional and technical talents in various fields. One year before April 25, 2020, Tesla accused Cao Guangzhi, the former chief computer vision scientist, of stealing the company's autopilot confidential information and hopping to Xiaopeng. According to Xiaopeng automobile, in the past, Xiaopeng automobile has assisted Tesla to provide relevant evidence, but so far no evidence has been found to prove that Cao Guangzhi stole the secret. According to media reports, in addition to asking Xiaopeng to provide the source code, Tesla also asked a former Apple employee who jumped to Xiaopeng to provide information. The employee was criminally charged in 2018 with trying to steal business secrets to get Xiaopeng's job. He and Cao Guangzhi used "hard to track" methods, airdrop (Apple's wireless transmission technology), to obtain the former employer's business secrets. "There is a lot of similarity between the two cases and it's difficult to see these similarities as pure coincidence," Tesla said It can be seen that at present, Tesla is still actively looking for new evidence of former employees stealing secrets, and has begun to point the finger at Xiaopeng automobile. With regard to the latest progress of the incident, car house will continue to pay attention to it.

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