Tesla sues former Optimus engineer over alleged trade secret theft
Tesla has sued a former engineer for alleged commercial secrets of his humanoid Robotics program, Optimus, and used them to launch a rival startup.
The lawsuit, which on Wednesday and Originally reported by Bloombergaccuses Zhongjie “Jay” li of stealing commercial secrets with regard to Tesla’s development of “advanced robot hand sensors” to launch his startup DrawingA Y-combinator-supported company builds Robot Hands.
The complaint states that Li, who worked at Tesla from August 2022 to September 2024, downloaded confidential information about Optimus on two separate personal smartphones.
The complaint added that in the last few months of his time at Tesla “Humanoid Robotic Hands” Li investigated in his workplace computer, in addition to making internet search assignments with regard to risk capital and other Startup financing sources.
“Less than a week after he had left Tesla, proceptie was recorded,” the complaint said. “And within just five months, Proception publicly claimed that he has successfully built ‘successful’ advanced humanoid robotands’ – hands that show a striking resemblance to the designs where SLA worked on Tesla.”
The Proception website states that the company works to “bring about a revolution in the interaction between people and robot by building the most advanced humanoid hands in the world.”
WAN reached Proception and Tesla for more information.
The Optimus Robotics program of Tesla has been a bit of a rocky path, because the company revealed that it built a humanoid robot, Tesla Bot, in 2021. In 2022, the company said that De Bot would be introduced in 2023 in 2023. But Optimus has remained in development.
In July 2024, Elon Musk from Tesla said that the company would start selling the robot in 2026. Only a few months later during the “We, Robot” event of Tesla in October 2024, Tesla’s Optimus Bots were largely controlled by people offsite.
