Major automakers, including Tesla, Toyota & Others sued over automated vehicle patents by Perrone Robotics

In a sweeping legal move, Perrone Robotics — a pioneer in robotics and automated-vehicle software — has filed patent-infringement lawsuits against seven major automakers, including Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda and Nissan. The filings, submitted in U.S. federal courts in Texas and Virginia, allege that the defendants’ automated-driving systems rely on Perrone’s patented “general-purpose robotics operating system” (GPROS) and associated technologies without proper licensing. 

Founded by industry veteran Paul Perrone, Perrone Robotics developed in the mid-2000s a flexible software platform that enables a single code base to power a wide variety of robots and automated vehicles — a breakthrough that helped lay the foundation of modern ADAS and autonomy. According to the complaint, this very architecture has been used for years in standard automated-driving suites across the defendants’ vehicle lineups. One of the patents now under dispute (U.S. Patent 10,331,136) was reportedly offered to Tesla in 2017 — an offer the automaker declined. 

Perrone Robotics is seeking unspecified monetary damages and an injunction to stop further use of the patented technology. The company argues that protecting its intellectual property is vital, especially given how deeply its inventions have influenced the rapidly growing autonomous-vehicle industry.

As the case moves forward, it could challenge how major automakers license or develop their self-driving software — and may force companies to re-examine the origins of features now taken for granted in modern cars.

Press release: PR Newswire