Tesla is suing its rival Rivian: several employees have left Elon Musk’s firm for the competition, and have taken confidential information with them.
It would be a ” alarmingly repeating trend “Says Tesla in a complaint filed against its competitor Rivian, first spotted by Bloomberg July 23, 2020.
The two companies a battle is waged for several years through their electric pickup project, the Cybertruck for Tesla, the R1T for Rivian. While Elon Musk’s company thought it was the first to present this vehicle project, his American opponent gave him priority in unveiling his R1T before everyone else.
According to the complaint filed in a California court, Tesla accuses Rivian of having robbed him of at least four employees, and that they would have taken the opportunity to bring trade secrets from their former employer to their new one. ” Tesla now knows that Rivian gave instructions to a leaving Tesla employee about confidential Tesla information Rivian needed », Assures Tesla’s complaint, taken up by TechCrunch. « The employee and Rivian both knew it would violate nondisclosure agreements between the employee and Tesla. »
The accused manufacturer denies all the allegations, ensuring expressly ask its new employees to promise that they ” have not introduced, and will not introduce into Rivian’s systems elements that are the intellectual property of former employers. »
In total, Rivian would have hired 178 people who have gone through Tesla one day over the years, including 70 directly from Tesla.
Who will take out their pickup first?
Rivian had planned to release his pickup in 2020, but he has ad at the end of May, having to postpone this marketing because of the pandemic of coronavirus which forced him to close his factories for several months. ” The return to activity of Rivian is centered on safety, with a plan spread over 4 phases focused on the well-being of the employees. As a bonus, the dedicated design and engineering teams have found innovative ways to develop digital methods that do not delay the program. », Commented RJ Scaringe, CEO.
In view of the health crisis and the uncertainties of the entire industry, it is today impossible to know which of the two players will manage to market its electric pickup first – Tesla is betting on the end of 2021, while Rivian also talks about the next year, but without any certainty.
Who’s who
—
