Ex-Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang pleaded not guilty in a Californian court today, after he was accused by federal prosecutors of stealing trade secrets.
Zhang was indicted last week on a single count of trade secret theft, on the back of evidence submitted by Apple which alleged he accepted a job at Chinese rival Xmotors, then downloaded blueprints for a circuit board for an autonomous car from company servers before booking a last-minute flight to China.
Read more: Legal case against ex-Apple worker reveals its self-driving car tech
The case piqued the interest of many around the world, as it revealed some details surrounding Apple's secretive self-driving car technology that was previously unknown.
Today, we know that Apple has around 5,000 employees verified to access information about the program, with a further 2,700 staff gaining access to secret databases.
Zhang was reportedly working on a so-called sensor fusion concept, where multiple sensors are used to make cars more accurate in their decisions while in self-driving mode.
Given that Zhang has today plead not guilty, Apple will likely have to reveal even more information about its technology should the case end up in court.
Read more: Apple reveals fastest ever Macbook Pro, with some fancy new add-ons
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