Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, Autopilot source code
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Re: Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, Autopilot source code
#2Interesting. I thought Baidu and Alibaba are supposed to be leading AI companies. If so, why would XiaoPeng not partner with them?
Re: Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, Autopilot source code
#3This might be unpopular here, but I kind of wish this and other similar systems were more open source, or even just shared between companies. If companies are going to be putting a system out there on the streets anyway, and Tesla's is comparatively more quality and perhaps thus safer (I'm not making a claim, just positing a hypothetical), then it would only be to everyone's benefit if every company didn't have to (often shoddily) reinvent this wheel every time.
Re: Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, Autopilot source code
#4Tesla is suing former employees for stealing its logistics (warehousing, inventory control, etc.) trade secrets.
Tesla has to show that Zoox is using the information the employees allegedly stole. In a nutshell, Tesla would have to show similarities between its logistics processes and Zoox's. (https://www.fenwick.com/FenwickDocuments/Trade_Secrets_Prote... for a good summary)
But given the shitshow that is Tesla's logistics , that's extremely unlikely, as Tesla's logistics processes simply aren't valuable IP. Tesla has displayed a chronic inability to manage their own supply chain, especially during the period the employees were at Tesla. If anything, Zoox used the information allegedly taken from Tesla as an example of what not to do logistically, and trade secrets law doesn't let you sue for that.
EDIT: To clarify: there are 2 lawsuits in the article. One is against an employee for stealing trade secrets, which doesn't require proof that his new employer is using the secrets. That lawsuit doesn't involve Zoox. The other lawsuit is against Zoox and former Tesla employees for using Tesla's trade secrets. I'm only referring to the one against Zoox. It's pretty clear that the secrets were misappropriated, so the real question is whether those secrets are actually being used.
Re: Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, Autopilot source code
#5This might be unpopular here, but I kind of wish this and other similar systems were more open source, or even just shared between companies. If companies are going to be putting a system out there on the streets anyway, and Tesla's is comparatively more quality and perhaps thus safer (I'm not making a claim, just positing a hypothetical), then it would only be to everyone's benefit if every company didn't have to (o…
Open source tends to work great for re-implementing technology that is already understood. It tends not to work for exploratory research, since that requires risk and ingenuity, not a designed-by-committee approach.
R&D of this sort is funded best with a strong profit motive, unless the government is willing to shell out for it.
Re: Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, Autopilot source code
#6Isn't that potentially billions of dollars worth of stolen IP? That's not cool.
Re: Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, Autopilot source code
#7This might be unpopular here, but I kind of wish this and other similar systems were more open source, or even just shared between companies. If companies are going to be putting a system out there on the streets anyway, and Tesla's is comparatively more quality and perhaps thus safer (I'm not making a claim, just positing a hypothetical), then it would only be to everyone's benefit if every company didn't have to (o…
Yes, I wish everything was free too.
Re: Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, Autopilot source code
#8This might be unpopular here, but I kind of wish this and other similar systems were more open source, or even just shared between companies. If companies are going to be putting a system out there on the streets anyway, and Tesla's is comparatively more quality and perhaps thus safer (I'm not making a claim, just positing a hypothetical), then it would only be to everyone's benefit if every company didn't have to (o…
There needs to be a shift in how proprietary technologies that have universal benefits for our society are viewed.
It may be normal for a company to withold information to keep a competitive edge in a nascent industry, but it will also mean that their press releases lauding reduced death rates in their products will be double edged swords, unless they make the ethical decision to share their improvements with other players and reduce death rates across the industry.
Re: Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, Autopilot source code
#9This might be unpopular here, but I kind of wish this and other similar systems were more open source, or even just shared between companies. If companies are going to be putting a system out there on the streets anyway, and Tesla's is comparatively more quality and perhaps thus safer (I'm not making a claim, just positing a hypothetical), then it would only be to everyone's benefit if every company didn't have to (o…
Open source tends to work great for re-implementing technology that is already understood. It tends not to work for exploratory research, since that requires risk and ingenuity, not a designed-by-committee approach. R&D of this sort is funded best with a strong profit motive, unless the government is willing to shell out for it.
I'd disagree, for R&D of novel technology there is a lot to be said for casual contributions. If ML was open source, the state of the industry would almost assuredly be better than the current state of things.
Re: Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, Autopilot source code
#10This might be unpopular here, but I kind of wish this and other similar systems were more open source, or even just shared between companies. If companies are going to be putting a system out there on the streets anyway, and Tesla's is comparatively more quality and perhaps thus safer (I'm not making a claim, just positing a hypothetical), then it would only be to everyone's benefit if every company didn't have to (o…
Open source tends to work great for re-implementing technology that is already understood. It tends not to work for exploratory research, since that requires risk and ingenuity, not a designed-by-committee approach. R&D of this sort is funded best with a strong profit motive, unless the government is willing to shell out for it.
I'm not sure how that follows. Most big open-source projects are in practice owned and controlled by a single company/entity, and the processes don't differ much from what you'd see in-house. What you're describing sounds more like how standardisation bodies work than the realities of functioning software projects.