A small automotive AI outfit says somebody spent a week trying to lift its driving model, and that the trail runs back to a competitor’s network address.
IQ.Lvbs published a private beta of NovaSpark, the first model for its IQ.Pilot app, in a comma.ai Discord channel on October 3. NovaSpark only works with comma.ai’s camera hardware, which is built for self-driving retrofits.
The startup’s blog post says that from October 7 to October 14 it recorded repeated attempts to steal the model, reach users’ devices and private driving files, and break its sign-in system. It states the earliest requests came from an address assigned to comma.ai Inc. On October 8, IQ.Lvbs staff were removed from the comma.ai channel, and beta testers were removed from IQ.Lvbs’ own channel as well.
Comma.ai CTO Harald Schaefer posted in the channel on October 7 that NovaSpark was a fine-tune of the company’s Rebellious Hope model rather than original work. IQ.Lvbs rejects that, arguing the claim cannot stand because comma.ai does not hold NovaSpark’s weights or ONNX export. In the log data it published, it names the GitHub handle Schaefer uses as one of those tied to the comma.ai addresses.
The fighting words land against a difficult backdrop. NHTSA is investigating whether comma.ai’s driving automation contributed to five crashes and three deaths.
Comma.ai and Schaefer did not answer requests for comment. A person involved in IQ.Lvbs, who gave only the name Cat, said the company is reviewing legal options and looking at involving authorities.
For connected-vehicle teams, the dispute is a reminder that model weights are now product IP and belong in the same access-control and logging regime as source code.
