Tesla sues a former engineer for stealing “Dojo” supercomputer technology

Recently, the world famous electric car company Tesla sued a former engineer, alleging that he had illegally transferred confidential information about the company’s supercomputer technology to his own personal computer. , and used a “fake” laptop to cover up his theft.

For now, Tesla is developing an in-house supercomputer project, called Project Dojo, to process massive amounts of data, including video from Tesla vehicles, and use it to create autonomous driving software. The Project Dojo project has been revealed by CEO Elon Musk since 2019. It focuses on the development of a supercomputer, powered by data from Tesla users, aimed at helping Tesla solve technical problems. complex techniques like driving a self-driving car.

Musk also announced Tesla’s DJ1 chip block, a component used to build these supercomputer systems, as well as a white paper outlining project standards in 2021, but not much is known about it. Dojo supercomputer.

Engineer Alexander Yatskov was hired in January 2022 as a thermal engineer to help design the cooling system for the supercomputer system, which generates a lot of heat, Tesla said in the lawsuit.

“These designs and thermal data are confidential and closely guarded within Tesla,” the electric carmaker said. But Tesla said Yatskov admitted to downloading confidential information from Tesla devices to his personal device, after he was discovered. The company also said that he gave a “fake” computer for Tesla to check to cover his tracks, but in the end it was still exposed.

Tesla said Yatskov also violated the law by allegedly “deleting confidential Tesla information from work devices and accounts, and creating folders for Tesla documents containing confidential Project Dojo details on the Internet.” The company also said it discovered Yatskov sending emails with classified information about Tesla from his work email to his personal email address.

Yatskov resigned on May 2 and refused to return the information, Tesla said in the lawsuit. Tesla also accused Yatskov of lying on his resume about his expertise and work experience. Tesla said he also violated an agreement that prohibits him from disclosing trade secrets, but the company is temporarily not disclosing the details of the breach.

These secrets are extremely valuable to it, and can be a bargain for the company’s competitors, Tesla said in the lawsuit. “This is a case of unlawful retention of a trade secret of an employee who, during his brief stint at Tesla, all evidence obtained by the company substantiated a record of lying, and then cheated again by providing a ‘fake’ device to try and cover his tracks,” Tesla said in its complaint with file number 5:22-cv-02725, filed with United States District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).

Currently, Tesla is looking for payments indemnify and initial damages, and ordered to prevent Yatskov from disclosing his trade secrets and demanded that he return all proprietary data.

It is known that the former engineer Yatskov lives in Manteca, California. LinkedIn lists Alexander Yatskov as living in Manteca and having worked as a thermal engineer at Juniper Networks since March 2016. Yatskov is listed on several Juniper patents.

Before that, Yatskov spent a decade at supercomputer maker Cray and then a decade at a Massachusetts company called Thermal Form and Function. Yatskov obtained his PhD in machine design from Moscow State University. In 2011, while working in Massachusetts, he earned a master’s degree in engineering management from Tufts University.

Yatskov’s LinkedIn page shows he still works at Juniper Networks, but it doesn’t appear to be a thermal engineer named Alexander Yatskov in California. Maybe he didn’t update his LinkedIn page when he started at Tesla.

His LinkedIn page is affiliated with a consulting firm called Robust Cooling Technologies. So a LinkedIn representative called the number listed on the company’s website. A man with a strong accent – possibly Russian – answered the phone and identified himself as Alexander Yatskov. When a LinkedIn representative said, “I am a reporter calling about the Tesla lawsuit, there was a long pause on the other end of the line” and finally: “No comment at all”, finally. talked to him, then he hung up.

For now, Tesla says it doesn’t know how much information its former employee took or what he might be planning to do with it. Tesla sued Yatskov under the Trade Secrets Protection Act, a 2016 law intended to strengthen protections for trade secrets. The company has requested an order to return the stolen information as well as compensation to Tesla.