Tesla sues former employee accused of stealing ‘gigabytes’ of data

Tesla has sued a former employee who allegedly stole “gigabytes” of data and trade secrets after hacking into the company’s accounts.

A lawsuit filed yesterday in Las Vegas alleges that Martin Tripp, a former engineer at Tesla’s Nevada-based Gigafactory, leaked confidential information to third parties that caused “significant and continuing damages” to the electric car company.

The information includes “dozens of confidential photographs and a video of Tesla’s manufacturing systems”, according to the company’s lawyers.

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The lawsuit also claims that Tripp created his own “hacking software” and uploaded it to three computers inside Tesla, in a bid to continuing leaking data following his sacking last week.

Tripp told The Washington Post that he did not tamper with Tesla’s internal computers and insists he is a “whistle-blower” who witnessed “some really scary things”.

The engineer, who had been working for Tesla since October, claims he saw “punctured batteries” fitted in “hundreds” of Model 3 electric cars.

Tesla refutes the claim and says it does not export cars with safety concerns, the newspaper reports.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the lawsuit comes “days” after Tesla chief executive Elon Musk issued a company-wide email accusing an employee of “damaging sabotage” and announced an investigation into the matter.

Musk hinted on Twitter that there are more individuals involved in the case, but insisted that “the actions of a few bad apples will not stop Tesla from reaching its goals”.

“With 40,000 people, the worst 1 in 1000 will have issues. That’s still ~40 people”, he said.

Nevertheless, the BBC says Tesla is seeking $1m (£760,000) in damages in its lawsuit against Tripp.