Tesla has filed a case against a former employee, accusing him of stealing confidential information related to his humanoid robotics project, optimus and using it to install a competitive startup. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday and reported by Bloomberg first, Jongji targets “J” Lee, who was working in Tesla between August 2022 and September 2024. Tesla alleged that Li has abused her to include the development of her advanced robotic hand sensor, and later the promloot has been designed to launch its own venture.

According to the legal complaint, Lee downloaded sensitive optimus project data on two individual smartphones during his tenure in Tesla. In addition to accessing confidential files, the lawsuit claims that, in the leading months for their departure, Lee used Tesla’s internal systems to do research on humanoid robotic hand design and discovered topics related to enterprise capital and startup funding, which suggests prefated intentions to establish a competitive business.

The complaint stated, “After less than a week of leaving Tesla, Prepan was included.” “And within just five months, the prophecy has publicly claimed to have ‘successfully manufactured’ ‘advanced humanoid robotic hands’ – there are those who tolerate a striking equality for the design Lee that works in Tesla.”

Procession website describes its mission “The world’s most advanced humanoid hands have been made as a demand to bring revolution in human-robot interactions.” Equality between the proclaiming designs and the ownership functions of Tesla has inspired Tesla to take legal action to protect his intellectual property.

Tesla’s Humanoid Robotics trip has faced several obstacles as it was first unveiled in 2021, when CEO Elone Musk introduced the Tesla bot concept – later branded as optimus. Initially, the company indicated that Humanoid Robot would debut with other products in 2023. However, progress has been slower than expected, with optimus robots still in development.

In July 2024, Musk provided an updated timeline, stating that Tesla expected to start commercial sales of optimus robots by 2026. However, by October 2024, at Tesla’s “V, Robot” event, the showcashed optimus robots were still operated by humans on a large scale, which highlights the technology to progress.

Tesla says that the alleged theft of Lee’s intellectual property may endanger the years of internal research and development invested in optimus. The lawsuit underlines the high stakes involved in the race to develop advanced robotics, especially companies like Tesla want to lead the emerging market for humanoid robots capable of complex, like human-like tasks.

While Tesla has faced technical failures to bring optimus to the market, the ongoing development of robotic hands is seen as an important component in making the humanoid robot completely functional. Advanced hand sensors are believed to have allegedly accessed, it is believed that the robot is believed to have an important role in enabling robots to repeat the mastery like human, a major milestone that can separate Tesla from the contestants in the region.

Proception has not yet responded to the trial in public, and legal proceedings are now going on.