Skip to Content
Silicon Valley

Tesla files a lawsuit against a former employee for allegedly leaking confidential IP

June 20, 2018

Over the weekend CEO Elon Musk sent a company-wide e-mail indicating that Tesla had been “sabotaged” by a former employee. Today, Tesla filed a whopper of a lawsuit against a former worker who it suspects shared information.

The news:  Tesla’s federal suit alleges that Martin Tripp, a previous Gigafactory technician, leaked confidential information about the company to outside parties.

The lawsuit details: The lawsuit alleges that Tripp ...

     —  “Admitted to writing software that hacked Tesla’s manufacturing operating system (‘MOS’) and to transferring several gigabytes of Tesla data to outside entities.” Included in that information are “dozens of confidential photographs and a video of Tesla’s manufacturing systems.”
     —  Spread false information to the media. For example, according to the suit, he “falsely claimed that Tesla was delayed in bringing new manufacturing equipment online.”

Why it matters: This is the latest in a string of employment-related developments at Tesla, including a recent reorganization that reduced the workforce by 9 percent and allegations of unsafe conditions in the gigafactory. With this, Tesla looks to move away from a defensive PR strategy with a not-so-subtle message to current workers about potential consequences for leaking.  

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Scientists are finding signals of long covid in blood. They could lead to new treatments.

Faults in a certain part of the immune system might be at the root of some long covid cases, new research suggests.

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.