Electric car manufacturer Tesla is suing a former employee for $1 million, alleging that the man in question hacked its confidential and trade secret information which was then leaked to third parties. The company has also claimed in documents filed in court that Martin Tripp, the employee in question, also leaked false information to the media. Tesla has filed the lawsuit against its former process technician Tripp today in Nevada.
The lawsuit was filed after Musk sent an internal email about a recent factory fire and hinted at possible sabotage while another email mentioned that he had found the possible saboteur.
The lawsuit mentions that Tripp has “admitted to writing software that hacked Tesla’s manufacturing operating system (“MOS”) and to transferring several gigabytes of Tesla data to outside entities.”
The data that was leaked is said to include countless photos and a video of Tesla’ manufacturing systems. It alleges that Tripp gave false information to the media. In one case, “Tripp claimed that punctured battery cells had been used in certain Model 3 vehicles even though no punctured cells were ever used in vehicles, batteries or otherwise,” according to the company.
Tesla hasn’t commented on this lawsuit as yet and it remains to be seen how this matter will play out in court.