In an internal note to his company’s employees, Motive CEO Shoaib Makani highlighted the favorable ITC ruling but also acknowledged the arbitration setback. (Samsara and Motive)
March 19, 2026 4:45 PM, EDT
Key Takeaways:
- An arbitrator ordered Motive to pay Samsara more than $30 million over false advertising, while the U.S. International Trade Commission cleared Motive of patent infringement.
- Samsara disclosed it was awarded $30.3 million in damages and an injunction tied to claims deemed literally false, forcing Motive to stop using studies.
- Litigation continues, with Samsara pursuing trade secrets claims in California and Motive alleging intellectual property theft and false advertising in federal court.
Motive Technologies has been ordered to pay rival Samsara more than $30 million over false advertising claims but was cleared in a patent infringement case, marking the latest chapter in the ongoing legal battle between the two suppliers of connected fleet technology.
In February, the U.S. International Trade Commission affirmed a judge’s earlier ruling that Motive’s in-cab technology did not violate Samsara’s patents and ended its investigation of the matter.
However, an arbitrator awarded Samsara an injunction and damages related to non-patent claims following a confidential arbitration proceeding.
RELATED: Motive Scores Legal Victory Against Samsara in Patent Case
In an internal note to his company’s employees, Motive CEO Shoaib Makani highlighted the ITC ruling.
“This is a win for the nearly 100,000 customers and more than 1 million drivers who rely on our technology to improve the safety of our roads,” he wrote.
In the note, Makani also acknowledged that the arbitrator awarded Samsara an injunction and damages in part related to benchmarking studies that Motive commissioned to compare the performance of its artificial intelligence-enabled dash cameras with Samsara’s products.
As a result, Motive will no longer use those studies, Makani wrote.
A corrective statement that now appears on Motive’s website notes that assertions that its AI dashcam is three to four times more successful, accurate and speedy in detecting unsafe driving than Samsara’s AI dashcam have been deemed “literally false” by the arbitrator.
“The facts show Motive committed fraud and made false claims about our product capabilities, misleading prospects and customers,” Adam Eltoukhy, Samsara’s chief legal officer, said in a statement to Transport Topics.
In its annual report filed March 16, publicly traded Samsara disclosed it was awarded $30.3 million in damages in accordance with the arbitration decision.
“Honest competition requires honest comparisons. If Motive believes in transparency, it should allow the ruling underlying the award to be shared with the public,” Eltoukhy said. “That ruling vindicates our claims and gives us confidence in the remaining cases we filed against Motive for trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement. In the meantime, we’ll continue to maintain our market momentum by building amazing products and services for our customers.”
Samsara and Motive, both based in San Francisco, are major suppliers of in-cab technology for trucking fleets. Their products include fleet telematics, electronic logging of driver hours of service and dashcams that utilize AI to monitor and improve driver performance.
Litigation between the two technology vendors remains active on other fronts, including a separate trade secrets lawsuit Samsara filed against Motive in California Superior Court for the County of San Francisco.
Motive also is pursuing its own legal case against Samsara alleging intellectual property theft and false advertising in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
