Tesla sues former engineer over supercomputer technology theft

Tesla has sued one of its former engineers claiming that he illegally transferred confidential information about the EV maker's supercomputer technology to his own computer and turned over a dummy laptop for inspection to cover up the theft. The automaker accused the former engineer Alexander Yatskov stole data about the company's in-house supercomputer dubbed Project Dojo, which is being developed to deal with massive amounts of data, and video from Tesla cars and using it to create autonomous driving software.

Yatskov, a thermal engineer was reportedly hired by Tesla in January this year to help design cooling systems for the computer, which generates a massive amount of heat, claimed Tesla in a complaint. The automaker also said that the stolen thermal designs and data are confidential and tightly guarded within Tesla.

The car brand has also claimed that Yatskov admitted to downloading confidential information from his Tesla devices to his personal devices after he was confronted. He also reportedly turned over a dummy computer for inspection by Tesla to try and cover his tracks, the company claimed. As the EV maker claims, Yatskov quit on May 2 and refused to return the stolen information.

The US electric car major is seeking compensatory and exemplary damages and an order that would stop Yatskov from disseminating the auto company's trade secrets and direct him to return all the proprietary data.

The Dojo supercomputer is claimed to play a crucial role in the brand's plan to roll out a fully self-driving technology, which is still in progress. In such a situation this data theft could be a major blow to the automaker.

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