AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/25 Report--

There are still two days left for Xiaopeng car to release Xiaopeng P7, but at this critical moment, Tesla upgraded his self-driving technology "theft". According to reports, Tesla asked Xiaopeng to disclose all its autonomous driving technology source code, including November 2018, to provide Xiaopeng's CEO he Xiaopeng's computer and went to the United States to testify, and even asked employees involved to accept nearly 30 applications such as interviews. Xiaopeng Automobile submitted a motion of rebuttal to the court, and Tesla also submitted a motion of rebuttal to the court.

After Tesla filed a civil lawsuit against Cao Guangzhi, a former employee and visual scientist who now joined Xiaopeng, in March last year, Tesla asked Xiaopeng to provide all self-driving source code and many other unreasonable demands, Xiaopeng said in a statement on April 25. Xiaopeng believes that this is Tesla's obvious bullying to young competitors and sternly refuses this kind of behavior.

According to previous reports, Tesla sued Cao Guangzhi, the company's former Autopilot computer vision researcher, in March last year, accusing him of stealing the source code of Autopilot self-driving technology and joining Chinese electric car startup Xiaopeng Motor.

According to a statement by Tesla at the time, Cao Guangzhi copied more than 300,000 files related to Autopilot source code and uploaded complete copies of Autopilot related source code to his iCloud account. Cao Guangzhi suddenly applied for resignation to Tesla on January 3, 2019, and then moved to Xiaopeng Automobile, where he served as the person in charge of self-driving awareness of Xiaopeng car. Tesla also said in the indictment that Autopilot is the research and development achievement that Tesla has invested more than hundreds of millions of dollars over the past five years, and Cao Zhiguang and Xiaopeng Automobile will not be allowed to do anything to infringe Autopilot-related technology patents.

"before and after Cao Guangzhi took office, Xiaopeng Motor did not find the violations described by Tesla and launched a further investigation into the matter," Xiaopeng Motor said in a statement on March 22. " He Xiaopeng, founder of Xiaopeng Automobile, said on moments: "Tesla and Xiaopeng Automobile are both innovative companies that are doing independent research and development for self-driving. Only competition will make technological progress and benefit users."

After being sued by Tesla, Cao Guangzhi admitted in court that he had backed up a compressed file containing AutoPilot source code to his iCloud cloud account at the end of 2018, but the file had been deleted when he left office.

Xiaopeng said in this statement that Xiaopeng was not a party to the case. Over the past year, Xiaopeng Motor has been working hard to assist in the investigation of the case, and has even taken the initiative to provide an electronic backup of Cao Guangzhi's work computer. But so far there is no evidence that Xiaopeng has abused trade secrets or other misconduct. In addition, all the attempts that Xiaopeng accused Tesla of trying to show showed obvious bullying to a young competitor, rather than trying to resolve the legal case against Dr. Cao on a case-by-case basis. Baseless accusations will not slow down Xiaopeng's independent research and development.

The following is the full text of Xiaopeng's statement:

Recently, after filing a civil lawsuit against Cao Guangzhi, a former employee, visual scientist and now Xiaopeng employee, in March 2019, Tesla put forward many unreasonable claims to Xiaopeng, such as providing all the self-driving source code so far. In the past year, Xiaopeng Motor has nothing to hide and has been trying to assist in the investigation of the case. But so far there is no evidence that Xiaopeng has abused trade secrets or other misconduct. Therefore, Xiaopeng rejected its request and issued a solemn statement as follows:

1. Xiaopeng Motor is not a party to the case. For more than a year, Xiaopeng Motor not only provided a lot of assistance to the case, but also took the initiative to provide an electronic backup of Cao Guangzhi's work computer. The car even allowed Tesla, under a court protection order, to access the company's source code repository as of March 21, 2019 (that is, the date of Tesla's lawsuit) to obtain evidence.

2. Xiaopeng Motor hired a professional third party to conduct legal forensics investigation on the day it learned that the case was being sued. Its forensic investigation and analysis showed no sign that any Tesla's source code, trade secrets or protected confidential information had been transmitted to the company and its systems. It will be up to the judge and jury in this case to judge whether the actions charged by Tesla against Cao Guangyi violate the laws of the United States.

3. Xiaopeng Motor has always respected and paid attention to protecting the intellectual property achievements of itself and others. As a new car manufacturer of the first echelon in China, Xiaopeng Automobile has carried out independent full-closed-loop independent research and development on autopilot, and its achievements have been reflected in Xiaopeng G3 and P, and has formed a complete and differentiated self-driving technology system.

Based on the above, Xiaopeng Motor resolutely defended in accordance with the law and sternly rejected many unreasonable requests put forward by Tesla, such as requiring Xiaopeng Automobile to provide all the source code.

In the one-year period since the lawsuit, all attempts made by Tesla to show obvious bullying to a young rival, rather than trying to resolve the legal case against Dr. Cao on a case-by-case basis, is regrettable.

We firmly believe that baseless accusation will not slow down the pace of independent research and development of cars, and Xiaopeng will continue to actively promote the popularization and evolution of smart cars with the integration of professionals in various fields.

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