Tesla is now being sued by Perrone Robotics, a tech startup based in Virginia and the company accuses Tesla of copying its robotics software in Autopilot cars. The federal lawsuit was filed in Alexandria, Virginia. It claims Tesla used Perrone’s ideas for at least six years.
Perrone says he offered a patent to Tesla in 2017, but Tesla did not buy it and he believes Tesla took the technology and built it into its vehicles, according to Reuters. Perrone wants to block Tesla from using these inventions and wants money to cover losses.
Paul Perrone started the company in Charlottesville. He has worked on autonomous vehicles for years. His operating system can run different robots with the same software. This makes it easy for carmakers to run and update many types of robots without starting from scratch. His team competed in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge to build a self-driving car. Perrone worked with others to set industry rules for autonomy. His company got support from Intel Capital and works with car, tech, and mobility companies.
The patents Perrone deals with are about a “General Purpose Robotics Operating System” (GPROS). One of these, U.S. Patent 10,331,136, deals with autonomous and unmanned vehicle controls. This technology is supposed to help companies program and test vehicles. Many automakers use similar platforms to control driving features like lane-keeping and emergency stops. Perrone claims Tesla uses ideas from his patent in Autopilot without a license.
Tesla faces other lawsuits
Tesla has been in legal fights over its Autopilot software before. Most lawsuits come from smaller patent holders. Earlier this year, Perceptive Automata said Tesla copied the way it reads pedestrian behavior. That case is still going, after Tesla’s move to throw it out was only partly successful. Tesla asked the patent office to review the claims. Tesla’s usual approach is to use an inter partes review to try to cancel patents. Records say Tesla wins about 70 percent of these fights. Often, though, it makes deals to lower costs.
Arsus LLC also accused Tesla of using patented anti-rollover technology in Autopilot. Tesla got the case dismissed after a review showed the patent was invalid.
A recent loss for Tesla came when a director at the patent office ended a review. He said Tesla gave different arguments at court and to the patent office.
Tesla is pushing hard on new Autopilot updates. If Perrone wins, Tesla might have to stop using some software features or pay damages. The legal fight could delay new products. Big automakers pay attention to these cases because one win or loss can set a pattern for everyone. The next steps from Tesla will affect more than just company profits. They might change plans across the whole self-driving car industry.
The lawsuit is called Perrone Robotics Inc v. Tesla Inc, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, No. 25-02156, as reported by Reuters.
Tesla has not talked about the lawsuit yet.
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