Tesla sues former Optimus engineer over alleged trade secret theft

Tesla sued a former engineer for his Humanoid Robotics Program, Optimus, on charges of stealing trade privacy and using them to launch a rival startup.

The case, which was filed on Wednesday and Originally reported by BloombergJhongji “J” Lee complained about theft of trade privacy about the development of “Advanced Robotic Hand Sensor” to launch its startup TendencyA Wi-combinator-supported company creates robotic hands.

It is alleged that LI, who worked in Tesla from August 2022 to September 2024, downloaded confidential information about Optimus on two separate private smartphones.

The complaint further added that during his last few months of his time in Tesla, Lee studied “Humanoid Robotic Hands” on her workplace computer so that in addition to searching the Internet on the source of Venture Capital and other startup funds.

The complaint said, “The projay was included less than a week after he left Tesla.” “And in just five months, Proses publicly claimed that the ‘successfully built’ advanced Humanoid Robotic Hands-Hands that carry attractive similarities with the designs that worked with in Tesla.”

The promotion website states that “the company is working to revolutionize the human-robot interaction by creating the world’s most advanced humanoid hand.”

TechCrunch has reached Prosperity and Tesla for more information.

Tesla Optimus Robotics Program has been on the rocky path since the company It was creating a humanoid robotTesla Bot, in 2021. In 2022, the company said that bot, along with other new products, Will be launched in 2023The However, Optimus is in development.

In July 2024, Tesla Elon Kasturi said that the company would do Start selling robots in 2026. Just a few months later in Tesla’s “We, Robot” event in October 2024, Tesla’s Optimus Bots were in the presence of Tesla Originally controlled by people Offsite