Valeo sues Nvidia over automotive code theft
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Valeo Schalter und Sensoren GmbH is suing Nvidia in the US over the theft of code.
The theft came to light after Nvidia won a deal to develop parking and driving assistance software for a major automotive OEM that had previously worked with Valeo.
Valeo, which is boosting its AI capabilities centred on its site in Ireland, is scathing about the deal.
“Undeterred by its total lack of experience in developing parking assistance software for the automotive industry, Nvidia bid on and was awarded the contract. Valeo, which had previously provided that OEM with both the hardware and the software for prior parking and driving assistance systems, was only awarded the contract this time to provide ultrasonic sensors, a hardware component used in advanced parking and driving assistance systems,” said Valeo in the complaint, filed in San Deigo.
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“Valeo relies on its trade secrets, patents, copyrights, and trademarks to guard the intellectual property developed as a result of the ingenuity and industry of its employees. One of Valeo’s software engineers—who helped build, code, and develop Valeo’s advanced parking and driving assistance software—realized that his knowledge of, and exposure and access to, Valeo proprietary software, technologies, and development techniques would make him exceedingly valuable to Nvidia.”
“In early 2021, shortly after the OEM customer announced that Nvidia would provide the software for its parking assistance technology, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, at the time a Valeo employee, downloaded without authorization the entirety of Valeo’s advanced parking and driving assistance systems source code.”
Months later, in August 2021, Moniruzzaman moved to Nvidia, receiving a promotion to a senior position working on the software development for the very same project for the OEM.
The theft went undetected for about six months until a video conference with Valeo and Nvidia engineers that revealed one of Valeo’s verbatim source code files open on his computer. Valeo participants on the videoconference call immediately recognized the source code and took a screenshot (above) before Moniruzzaman was alerted of his error. An IT audit confirmed that prior to his departure, Moniruzzaman downloaded the entirety of Valeo’s parking and driving assistance source code files.
Moniruzzaman was convicted of the theft in September in Germany and Nvidia has admitted that Valeo’s trade secreted code has been used to confirm how to interface Nvidia’s software with Valeo’s ultrasonic hardware. However it says any stolen cade has been removed from its code base, but Valeo believes Nvidia’s use of the IP goes far beyond the already admitted uses.
Valeo and Nvidia declined to comment on the case.
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