General Motors is accusing a former safety executive of violating a non-compete clause by defecting to Hyundai and taking crucial trade secrets with him to the South Korean automaker.
According to a report from Bloomberg, 26-year GM veteran Brian Latouf left the company this year to take up a job with Hyundai as its chief safety officer, but violated a clause in his contract by doing so.
GM has now filed a lawsuit in Delaware over the matter, seeking to have Latouf temporarily barred from working at Hyundai. The automaker also wants the judge to forbid Hyundai from using confidential information Latouf may be privy to.

Brian Latouf
In a statement, GM said Latouf had access to some of its “safety technology, advanced driver-assistance features, and autonomous vehicle development processes.” The lawsuit also accused him of transferring company information from a GM laptop to an unregistered USB storage device, violating company policy.
“Given the incredible similarity between his job at Hyundai and the position he held at GM, it is without question that he will use confidential, proprietary, and trade-secret information he learned at GM for Hyundai’s benefit,” the automaker said.
Hyundai is looking to resolve the matter and says it will not use proprietary GM technology or processes provided to it by Latouf. The automaker also sued GM in California court earlier this month, accusing it of overstepping its boundaries with regards to the contractual restrictions put on Latouf.
“Hyundai has taken all necessary steps to ensure that information is protected and is not used in Brian’s new role,” Michael Stewart, a spokesman for Hyundai Motor America, said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg.
Automakers are currently in a heated race to be first to market with a fully autonomous vehicle. Hyundai has committed $35 billion between to develop “future mobility technology” such as autonomous and electric vehicles between now and 2025, while GM has attracted billions in investment to its Cruise subsidiary, which is attempting to launch a driverless taxi service in the US in the near future.
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Source: Bloomberg
Comments
The South Koreans are doing what Japan has done for many decades before, copying U.S technology and offering cheaper and lower quality products to take away domestic sales. And the sad part is that many U.S. buyers (including my sister!) fall for the Korean ads and prefer those cheaper products.
Here where i live, even older Japanese car fans are trading to Korean products!
“cheaper and lower quality products to take away domestic sales” … cheaper, probably. lower quality, i doubt it.
Just another GM blame, lawyer event !
If you can’t compete on your own merits, blame and sue.
Why did this gentleman leave in the first place GM ?
Did he see a better future at Hyundai ? Like all the Customers moving to Hyundai ?
This persons knowledge is his worth, now if this knowledge was another GM employees, the lawsuit is fine.
But if the knowledge is his to begin with, and GM thinks they own his knowledge because of a piece of paper, this needs to be thrown out.
The days of a large company owning a persons thoughts should be over in the USA !
All it does is forces the knowledgeable people elsewhere and the large US companies lose !
Nobody will ever know the truth here, but if this knowledge is his, Maybe Dan should take a pay cut and they should have paid this guy more money to stay at GM.
Now not only does GM force an employee to leave, that said employee can not get another job in the field of his 26 year career ?
Nobody else sees this as a problem.
In my opinion.
I had no idea about the Self Driving Secrets of Hyundai and did not know the feature of it before reading your useful article. You can click myassignmenthelp to get more help in your assignment. I guess I must share these secretes with my family and friends to make their safety sure.
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