Charge sheet lets slip new details on Apple’s secretive self-driving work
Sensor fusion is critical in helping cars to ‘see’ — but Apple may also be looking to apply the technology to other products, experts say
San Francisco — The criminal complaint filed on Monday against a former Apple employee for allegedly stealing self-driving car trade secrets from the company provides a handful of new details about its work on the technology, experts say. The charges filed in US federal court alleged that a former employee, Xiaolang Zhang, disclosed intentions to work for a Chinese electric car startup and booked a last-minute flight to China after downloading the plan for a circuit board for a self-driving car. A lawyer provisionally appointed to represent Zhang did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Zhang’s arraignment is set for July 27 and he has not yet entered a plea. But the complaint also for the first time gave an official account of some details of the self-driving car programme. About 5,000 employees were authorised to access information about the programme, including about 2,700 "core" employees with access to secret databases. It also said Zhang was shown a "proprietary c...
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