Tesla claims Rivian has hired at least 178 former employees (70 of whom came directly from Tesla to Rivian), but Rivian claims it has “rigorous policies and procedures to make sure it does not obtain confidential information from other companies when on-boarding employees.” Rivian further double-downed in its defense that none of the alleged stolen trade secrets are in its possession.
Tesla, Rivian claims, lacks any hard proof of intellectual property theft and is merely speculating because it poached now-former Tesla employees. The California-based automaker is attempting to kill competition, Rivian firmly believes. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, however, has gone on record on more than one occasion welcoming new electric vehicle competitors, such as Volkswagen and General Motors.
