Zemcar, a Cambridge startup cofounded by former Obama administration Homeland Security official Juliette Kayyem, is suing Uber, alleging that the ride sharing giant stole its driver and rider monitoring technology.
In the lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court earlier this month, Zemcar said it worked on pilot programs with Uber in Brazil, where Zemcar’s technology successfully monitored 3.4 million hours of rides in 2020 and 2021. But then, in December 2021, Uber cut ties with Zemcar and less than a year later unveiled “copycat” features in its own app, according to the lawsuit.
Zemcar, which does business as Grip Mobility, is seeking to block Uber’s use of the allegedly copied features and unspecified damages. The Grip software, which runs on a driver’s smartphone, records audio and video of the driver and the passenger in effort to deter criminal acts by either.
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“Grip created a software-based video recording solution to increase rideshare safety, particularly for women and children,” the company said in a statement to the Globe. “Lacking a solution of its own, Uber partnered with Grip and demonstrated the effectiveness of Grip’s technology. But instead of paying fair compensation, Uber decided to take Grip’s solution for free — a practice that, if left unchecked, threatens innovation and progress in America.”
Uber, which rolled out its own similar monitoring features in October 2022, denied any wrongdoing.
“The safety of all Uber users is and has long been a top priority, and we are always exploring and creating new, innovative ways to help improve safety,” the company said in a statement to the Globe. “Uber declined to renew our pilot agreement with Grip and built a more seamless video recording solution for drivers based on our own existing technology.”
Uber has yet to file its legal response in the case, assigned to Judge Debra Squires-Lee. The case could take years to wind through the court system.
Bilal Khan, former chief product officer for Internet of Things at Verizon Wireless, founded Zemcar in 2015 to develop software to make ride sharing trips safer. Kayyem, who was assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, joined as a cofounder in 2017, a few years after she had unsuccessfully run for governor of Massachusetts.
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The company first approached Uber in the summer of 2019 to demonstrate its software, which could record audio and video of both a driver and a passenger via an app on the driver’s smartphone, the lawsuit said. At the time, Uber was dealing with a spate of violent incidents, including women passengers who alleged they were sexually assaulted by drivers.
The two companies began negotiating a partnership, and Zemcar shared “confidential and proprietary technical information” with Uber, according to the lawsuit. In October 2019, the companies signed a formal partnership agreement to run a test of Zemcar’s software, dubbed Sentinel, with Uber drivers in Brazil. The first trial of the technology started in January 2020.
Before commencing a second trial in March 2021, Zemcar and Uber’s Brazilian unit signed a services agreement and statement of work, the lawsuit said. The deal included a provision barring Uber from developing similar features that violated Zemcar’s intellectual property.
Zemcar “provided Uber with confidential information and know-how crucial to the successful implementation of audio/video capture technology,” the company said in the lawsuit.
In August 2021, Uber began talks to either permanently license Zemcar’s technology or acquire the startup outright, the lawsuit said. As part of the vetting process for the potential deal, Zemcar shared “additional confidential technical information,” the lawsuit said.
But in December 2021, Uber ended the talks and the pilot. Uber executives told Zemcar that the smartphone-based technology was inadequate, and Uber planned to pursue monitoring via separate dashcams, according to the lawsuit.
Less than a year later, Uber announced a video-recording feature for the safety of drivers and passengers that relied on the driver’s smartphone, just like Zemcar’s Grip app, the lawsuit said.
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“This announcement came as a shock to [Zemcar] because the feature did not include the use of dashcams, despite the representations Uber made,” the lawsuit said. “The design that Uber rolled out for its ‘Record My Ride’ program bears striking resemblance to Grip’s Sentinel app’s design.”
The lawsuit noted that Uber’s features to protect teens, rolled out in May 2023, also use “Grip’s proprietary capabilities, techniques, and process flows that Grip shared with Uber.”
Uber, in its statement, said it developed all of the monitoring features on its own and that the teen accounts features don’t include the audio or video streaming capability alleged by Zemcar.
Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman.