Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025:
- See what Motive and Samsara reps said after the U.S. International Trade Commission judge's preliminary determination.
- Truck driver admitted to smuggling people in the country illegally.
- Have you employed entry-level drivers? ATRI embarking on new analysis.
Preliminary ruling finds Motive did not infringe on Samsara’s patents
A preliminary ruling has been issued in Samsara’s battle with Motive Technologies over alleged patent infringement.
U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) Judge Doris Johnson Hines determined that Motive does not infringe upon any valid Samsara patent claims, and no Section 337 (claims regarding intellectual property rights) violations were found.
Motive Chief Legal Officer Shu White said Samsara’s claims were an effort to stifle competition and disrupt Motive’s business.
“Knowing they were years behind on the AI front and losing major customers to Motive, Samsara attempted to close the gap by using patent litigation as a marketing tool. But the strategy failed,” Motive Founder and CEO Shoaib Makani wrote in a letter to customers following the ruling. “The Judge’s determination confirms what we have always known -- Motive did not copy any of Samsara’s supposed inventions, and Motive’s AI technology is fundamentally better than Samsara’s.”
Samsara filed a lawsuit against Motive in January 2024, asking the court to enter judgment recognizing Motive’s infringement of Samsara’s patents covering several of its solutions in fleet management and driver safety included within Samsara’s telematics, video-based safety and sustainability solutions. The filing also stated that Motive illegally accessed Samsara’s platform and copied Samsara’s marketing materials.
Samsara, in February 2024, followed that lawsuit with this complaint to the ITC, and Motive filed a countersuit against Samsara that same month. Samsara filed another ITC complaint in November 2024, alleging that Motive misappropriated trade secrets and confidential information.
The ITC has not issued its final determination yet, and those other legal proceedings are ongoing.
In a statement to Overdrive sister publication CCJ, Samsara said its litigation was filed “in response to Motive’s multi-year campaign, conducted by Motive’s CEO and senior leaders from Motive’s engineering and product teams, to copy Samsara’s technology. As part of that effort, Motive’s leadership team secretly created fake customer accounts to gain access to Samsara’s systems to study and copy our technology. There are various actions pending against Motive, including claims for unfair competition, trade secret theft, false advertising, breach of contract, and other patent infringement claims.”
Regarding the ITC judge’s preliminary ruling, Samsara said it “does not impact our other ongoing legal actions against Motive, where we will continue to vigorously pursue our claims and ensure that Motive competes fairly and legally. The preliminary ITC ruling remains subject to review by the full Commission, and we are evaluating all options for further review."
[Related: ELD maker Motive, formerly KeepTruckin, sued by competitor]
Texas truck driver pleads guilty to smuggling illegal aliens in trailer
A 62-year-old truck driver from Alamo, Texas, has admitted he illegally transported two Mexican citizens in a tractor-trailer. The guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Nicholas J. Ganjei.
Lazaro Rosendo Vega reportedly drove to the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint in a maroon tractor-trailer on May 30. During the primary inspection, authorities noticed him sitting unusually high in his seat and acting abnormally loud and excited. When asked what he was hauling, he claimed a load of “avocados loaded about two hours ago.”
A subsequent X-ray scan revealed two people -- both citizens of Mexico -- hidden under blankets on the top bunk of the sleeper. Vega claimed he was unaware of the two men hiding just feet behind him.
As part of his plea, Vega acknowledged one of the men he transported claimed to have entered the United States about a month earlier, was led to a warehouse and later placed in Vega’s tractor-trailer. He had paid $9,000 to be smuggled into Fort Worth and was hidden inside the cab with another man for extended periods before the truck continued north.
Vega had blocked the dash camera view before picking up the Mexican citizens.
U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos accepted the plea and set sentencing for Dec. 10, at which time Vega faces up to five years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine. Vega was permitted to remain on bond pending that hearing.
[Related: Truck driver caught smuggling immigrants under flatbed]
ATRI calls for fleets to provide entry-level driver data for research update
The American Transportation Research Institute on Tuesday issued a call for motor carrier participation in new research analyzing the impacts of new entrant truck driver training on safety and retention.
Respondent motor carriers must have employed at least 25 entry-level drivers between March 2022 and August 2025.
The study will serve as an update to research published by ATRI in 2008 and, this time around, will focus on the efficacy of FMCSA’s Entry-Level Driver Training requirements.
Participating carriers are required to submit the following data points for each of their new-entrant drivers:
- Demographics -- days employed, CDL training provider, total miles driven, etc.
- Driver-specific safety events -- crashes, select violations, and select telematics events
For the purposes of the research, new entrants are defined as CDL drivers who have been driving professionally for 3 weeks to 24 months, and whose first professional truck driving job was with your carrier (i.e., they had no prior truck driving employer). Any driver who has met this definition since March 2022 could be included in the data collection.
In addition, participating motor carriers will be asked to report fleetwide averages for training and retention metrics such as hours of driving with a trainer and nights home per week.
All data collected is strictly confidential, and ATRI is prepared to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement for participation in this research. All data will be anonymized and published in aggregate form only.
Motor carriers who qualify and are interested in participating can complete the motor carrier questionnaire here.
[Related: Don't judge the next-generation book by its cover: CDL training for the future]
