Tesla Inc. has accused Rivian Automotive Inc. of a lawsuit for an “alarming pattern” to poach its workers and steal industry secrets.
The world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer said four of his first had taken very sensitive exclusive data when they went to paint for the rival startup, and Tesla said he suspected at least two other culprits.
Rivian, which has Amazon.com Inc., T. Rowe Price, BlackRock Inc. and Ford Motor Co. among his main investors, he denied the allegations. The company stated that it required all new workers to verify “that they have and that they will introduce the intellectual assets of former employers into Rivian’s systems.”
“Rivian is made up of high-performance, mission-focused teams, and our business style and generation are based on many years of engineering, design and strategy development,” the company said in an email statement. This requires the input and experience of thousands of workers from all generation and automotive sectors.”
The startup founded in 2009 through R.J. Scaringe, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a doctorate in mechanical engineering. The company’s 2,400 workers are located in California, Michigan and a production facility in Normal, Illinois. He recently denied reports that he planned to move his headquarters and operations to Silicon Valley, Tesla’s backyard.
Rivian, which has raised nearly $6 billion, plans to begin production of its first R1T battery electric pickup truck and its R1S SUV until mid-2021. The company promises more than 400 miles of diversity and cars are designed for off-road and off-road driving. In the past he has stated that cars would have a decal worth approximately $70,000.
In the new lawsuit, Tesla called himself “Rivian’s number one target from which to obtain information” and said Rivian had hired 178 former Tesla employees, about 70 of whom joined Rivian from Tesla.
Rivian said in his that “we appreciate Tesla for its leadership in restoring expectations of what an electric car can be,” while calling the demand accusations unfounded and “contrary to Rivian’s culture, ethics, and corporate policies.”
The case is Tesla Inc. vs. Rivian Automotive Inc., 20CV368472, California Superior Court, Santa Clara County, San Jose.