Tesla sued a former engineer who was allegedly stole trade secrets from Optimus, a humanoid robotics program, and used them to launch a rival startup.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday and first reported by Bloomberg accused Zhongjie “Jay” Li of stealing trade secrets on the development of Tesla’s “advanced robotic hand sensors” and launching his startup prop to build a robotic hand that will build a company by Y combination.
The complaint says Li, who worked for Tesla from August 2022 to September 2024, downloaded sensitive information about Optimus on two separate personal smartphones.
The complaint also added that in the last months of his time at Tesla, he conducted an internet search for venture capital and other startup funding sources, as well as researching “humanoid robotic hands” on workplace computers.
“With less than a week since he left Tesla, the pros were incorporated,” the complaint states. “And within just five months, the pros have publicly claimed that they have “successfully” built hands on advanced humanoid robots.
The Proception website states that the company is “working to revolutionize human-robot interactions by building the world’s most advanced humanoid hands.”
TechCrunch contacted Proporation and Tesla for more details.
Tesla’s Optimus Robotics program has been on a slightly rocky path since the company announced in 2021 that it was building the Tesla Bot humanoid robot.
In July 2024, Tesla’s Elon Musk said the company would begin selling the robots in 2026. Just a few months later, at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event in October 2024, the Optimus Bots attended by Tesla were primarily human-controlled.