1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 COMPLAINT

SUMMARY OF THE ACTION

1.

Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”) leads the world in the design and production of all-electric vehicles, as well as clean energy g eneration and storage products. Defendant Guangzhi Cao was a member of Tesla’s Autopilot team, an elite group o f engineers developing Tesla’s industry-leading Autopilot features, including its full self-driving technology – a crown je wel of Tesla’s intellectual property portfolio. As part of the Autopilot team, Cao had access to crucially important, and highly confidential, Tesla trade secrets, including source code. 2.

On January 3, 2019, Cao abruptly announced that he was quitting his job at Tesla, effective the very next day. Although he did not tell any one at the time, Cao had accepted a job doing the same work for Xiaopeng Motors Technology Company Ltd. (“XMotors”), a Tesla imitator also pursuing self-driving and electric vehicle technology. 3.

As Tesla has now learned, Cao began searching for a new job by November 2018. Long before he left, Cao began uploading complete copies of Tesla’s Autopilot-related source code

to his personal iCloud accou nt – more than 300,000 files a nd directories, in violation of Tesla’s policies and its agreements with Cao. Then, as he was looking to leave Tesla, Cao created .zip files of Tesla’s complete Autopilot-related source code repositories, making them smaller and easier to move. 4.

Unbeknownst to Tesla, Cao had at least a verbal offer from XMotors by November 26, 2018. Cao then traveled to China (the home of XMotors) between December 5 a nd 9, without telling his manager where he was g oing or why. He received a written employment offer from XMotors

on December 12. 5.

Tesla does not know when Cao accepted his job offer. However, as Tesla now knows, Cao deleted over 120,000 files in the month of December and disconnected his iCloud account from his Tesla-is sued computer on December 26. Between December 27 and January 1, Cao repeatedly logged into Te sla’s secure networks, and he c leared his browser history by January 4, his last day at Tesla. 6.

When he left, Cao did not return Tesla’s highly confidential information, nor disclose that he had ma de copies. Tesla thus believes that Cao still has, can access at will, and may be using