Tesla Inc accused one of its former engineers of stealing highly confidential autopilot information before bolting to Chinese rival Xpeng Motors, eight months after one of Apple Inc’s ex-employees was charged with taking sensitive robocar secrets to a new job with that same company.
Allegations that a second Silicon Valley giant was betrayed by one of its own workers bound for the same Chinese startup come amid a major US crackdown on Chinese corporate espionage. The rivalry in the electric-car market, with hundreds of billions of dollars at stake, has intensified with the two nations locked in a trade war.