Tesla is suing former engineer Alexander Yatskov for allegedly obtaining “secret and rigorously guarded” information about the company’s Project Dojo supercomputer technology.
Tesla claims Yatskov in a copy of the complaint of downloading the information to his own devices and refusing to return it.
Yatskov, who Tesla alleges misrepresented on his résumé about his job background and skill set, began working at the electric vehicle maker in January as a thermal engineer and assisted in the design of Dojo’s cooling systems.
Dojo is Tesla’s neural net training computer, which analyses massive volumes of data in order to train the AI software in Tesla’s self-driving cars.
According to the complaint, Yatskov had access to Dojo’s cooling information as well as other secret project information.
Tesla claims that all engineers sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevents them from disclosing or storing confidential information about Dojo.
The business also claims that Yatskov was forwarding emails containing sensitive Tesla information from his personal email address to his work email address.
According to the accusation, when Tesla approached Yatskov about the problem, he acknowledged to storing secret information on his own devices.
Tesla subsequently placed Yatskov on administrative leave, effective April 6, 2022, and requested him to bring in his equipment so that any stolen data could be recovered.
In an attempt to hide any evidence against him, Yatskov allegedly provided Tesla with a “dummy” laptop.
This alleged fake was meant to “appear like it may have accessed solely inoffensive Tesla material, such as an offer letter,” On May 2nd, Yatskov announced his resignation. Tesla is seeking compensatory and exemplary damages, as well as a court order requiring Yatskov to return the secret material.
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