Tesla, ex-engineer settle lawsuit over Autopilot source code

(Reuters) — Tesla Inc. has settled a lawsuit against a former employee who copied the source code of the electric vehicle maker's Autopilot technology, according to a U.S. district court filing dated April 15.

Tesla filed the lawsuit in 2019, saying its employee Cao Guangzhi, who worked at Tesla for two years, copied the source code before joining XMotors, the U.S. unit of Chinese self-driving car startup Xpeng Inc., in January 2019.

Terms of the settlement, which included a monetary payment made by Mr. Cao to Tesla, were not disclosed. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tesla’s Autopilot is a driver assistance system that handles some driving tasks and allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel, though the company emphasizes it still requires driver supervision and does not make the vehicle autonomous.

Tesla has a factory in Shanghai, putting it in direct competition with Xpeng and other Chinese companies in the world's largest electric vehicle market.

A statement to Reuters on behalf of Mr. Cao from his legal representative confirmed the settlement and said he had never accessed any Tesla data after he left the company, or provided Tesla information to XMotors or anyone else.

Mr. Cao later left XMotors, the company told Reuters in a statement Friday. XMotors, which was not a party in the case, said it respected intellectual property rights and relied on its in-house developed proprietary R&D and intellectual property.