Motor News

The Bentley Continental GT, Flying Spur, and Bentayga are all available to order with tweed interior trim from Mulliner, the British automaker’s bespoke division.
Four colors are available: a plaid pattern, dark blue, tan, or green.
The tweed fabric is sourced from the Lovat Mill in Scotland.
Bentley, much like Ivy League college professors, has a thing for tweed. The Bentley Continental GT convertible can be ordered with a tweed fabric top supplied from New England, and the Equestrian Edition features diamond quilted tweed fabrics. The Mulliner Bacalar also uses the fabric. Now the British automaker is adding tweed interior trim to other vehicles in its lineup, including the Continental GT, Flying Spur sedan, and Bentayga SUV. Only this time it’s from Scotland, and it’s available through Mulliner, Bentley’s bespoke commissioning division. Sophisticated.

There are four tweed patterns available: Glen Plaid–Tolsta Beach (pictured above), with a bold check pattern; Charcoal, a dark bluish color; Cheltenham, a countryside green; and Sand Herringbone, a tan color. The patterns adorn the interior door trim and blend well with the leather interior on the three grand tourers.

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The tweed fabrics are sourced from the Lovat Mill in Hawick, Scotland, which uses no harmful chemicals in the production of its fabrics and takes 90 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. Partnering with the Lovat Mill is part of Bentley’s Beyond 100 strategy, which is a plan for the British automaker to become the worldwide leader in “sustainable luxury mobility.” Its lineup will consist entirely of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles by 2026.
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has issued a recall for 29,884 of its 2014–2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs with the 3.0-liter EcoDiesel engine.
The problem is with the exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR) cooler, which could crack and result in a fire.
Owners of the affected Grand Cherokees will be notified beginning on December 31, 2020.
FCA has issued a recall for 28,884 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs from model years 2014 to 2019 equipped with the 3.0-liter EcoDiesel engine. The recall is due to the potential for the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler to crack because of “thermal fatigue,” which could lead to vaporized coolant entering the intake manifold and potentially resulting in a fire, according to a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
FCA said that it is unaware of any injuries or accidents as a result and said it will fix this issue by replacing that part with one not susceptible to cracking. The automaker will begin notifying the owners of the affected vehicles beginning on December 31.
Jeep owners can check the NHTSA website or NHTSA’s new recall app to see if their vehicle is involved in the recall.
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Living up to its name, this aftermarket hitch is truly hidden when not in use. We tested it on a BMW X7 but it’s available for a variety of vehicles. More

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Toyota says the 2021 Mirai will have a 400-mile range thanks to a more efficient fuel-cell stack.
This second-generation Mirai is a rear-wheel-drive sedan with a near 50/50 weight distribution but isn’t powerful enough to be classified as a sports sedan.
Toyota is lowering the price 20 percent compared to the current Mirai and hopes to increase sales of the FCEV tenfold globally.
Toyota’s Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV), like all vehicles powered by the most abundant chemical substance in the universe, is a bit of a curveball in what we’ve come to expect from the future of driving. While gas-powered vehicles dominate the here and now, EVs are expected to grow market share and eventually become the dominant means of transporting ourselves around town. FCEVs do offer the best of both of those worlds, plus quick refueling and a much smaller carbon footprint, but the refueling infrastructure hasn’t materialized.

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But Toyota and other automakers including Hyundai aren’t about to give up, so here we have the stylish 2021 Toyota Mirai, a vehicle with improved range, a bit more horsepower, near 50/50 weight distribution, and now rear-wheel drive. Toyota is hoping that all these updates will lead to a tenfold increase in global sales of the vehicle and is also promising it will be 20 percent cheaper than the 2020 model, which starts at $59,545, although Toyota hasn’t announced specific numbers yet.
The 2021 Mirai is built on Toyota’s GA-L platform. It’s 2.6 inches lower and 2.8 inches wider than the current Mirai, giving it a sleeker and sportier stance. A more compact fuel-cell stack resides under the long hood. Fuel-cell cylinders are situated under the cabin and below the trunk. A bigger change is the switch from front- to rear-wheel drive, although that decision was based more on available room for all the vehicle’s powertrain components than on making it more exciting to drive.
The new smaller fuel-cell stack where hydrogen is turned into power is more efficient, producing 128 kW compared to the current Mirai’s 114 kW. The single motor in the back produces 180 horsepower and 221 lb-ft of torque. So, although it looks quick, Toyota claims its zero-to-62-mph time is about 9.2 seconds.
Still, Toyota says the vehicle’s near 50/50 weight distribution and low center of gravity should give it a sporty feel while driving. What’s important is that the time behind the wheel has been increased to about 404 miles, according to chief engineer Yoshikazu Tanaka, compared to the 2020 model’s EPA-estimated 312 miles. That’s important for a vehicle using a refueling infrastructure that’s still in its infancy.
Hydrogen refueling stations are out there but are mostly concentrated in California and parts of New England, limiting the areas where the Mirai and other fuel-cell vehicles can be operated. The 2020 model is only sold in California and Hawaii. Still, the 2021 Mirai looks much better than its predecessor, and its increased range does make it more compelling for potential buyers. But that infrastructure will have to catch up if Toyota wants to see a massive sales increase among U.S. buyers.
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The idea of self-driving cars being used for crime has been suggested, but a car-hacking expert told us success for autonomous drug mules or other criminal endeavors is not that likely.
The systems will surely be exploited at some point, experts told Car and Driver, but likely not for high-level crimes due to the expense, time, and knowledge it would take to pull it off.
However, it’s those working at ride-hailing companies and service providers for automakers will be the ones with the access needed for such schemes.
While we’re still years and years away from truly autonomous veicles, it’s important for automakers, ride-share companies, and security researchers to figure out how these robot vehicles might be hacked or used in ways not intended by the manufacturers. After the OnStar hack of a few years ago where someone could take over a vehicle from the comfort of their own home, companies involved in transportation realized that if there’s a security issue with a vehicle or system connected to a vehicle, someone will exploit it.
Among the more far-fetched claims was one by the late drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s brother to a U.K. publication last year. He told Metro UK that drug smugglers routinely use Tesla Autopilot to deliver illegal drugs with no people behind the wheel. “I heard a lot of people use it especially for countries within South America and that many people can hack nowadays the systems also to make it the way they want it,” he said, providing no evidence whatsoever.

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The theory behind using a self-driving vehicle as a crime surrogate seems to be that people are fallible, untrustworthy, and not always working in the best interest of their criminal overlords. If you remove a person from a criminal enterprise, you lower your risk of being caught. But that doesn’t mean a robot on wheels is going to help bolster crime syndicates. If anything, they could be worse than people with loose lips.
“These anonymous vehicles, they’re gonna know where they’re coming from and where they’re going,” Robert Leale, president of CanBusHack and co-founder of the Car Hacking Village, told Car and Driver. The Village is part of the annual Def Con hacking conference. Leale noted that these vehicles leave a digital bread crumb everywhere they go. While a criminal might think twice about talking to the police if they’re caught, an autonomous car “doesn’t care if it rats you out,” said Leale.
It’s not just the fact that autonomous vehicles will hold a treasure trove of data about its movements that could lead right to any criminal. Part of what will help them succeed is a connection to the infrastructure they’ll be driving through. Sensors on traffic lights, signs, and between other vehicles, as well as cellular signals that ping off local towers, all are ways to pinpoint a vehicle’s exact location. You know how in crime shows the baddies always turn off their phones so the cops won’t trace their movements? This is essentially the same thing but with wheels.
These scenarios involve personally owned vehicles. They don’t even get into the data gold mine associated with using a ride-sharing service. Those will likely have cameras both inside and out of the cars keeping an eye on passengers and sharing all that data directly with a company’s servers. They will also likely be monitored by humans if the car detects something is a bit weird. So if the computers don’t rat out the criminals, humans sitting potentially hundreds of miles away will.
“It’s not an ideal situation if you want to do illegal activities,” Leale told Car and Driver. “There’s a huge cost and expense,” he added. The amount of work needed to circumvent all of these systems far outweighs the benefits. That’s not to say it won’t happen. Targeted attacks against the vehicles of individuals are still a possibility and tweaking the software of an autonomous vehicle to do things like drive through the desert or other environment where tracking is difficult is a possibility. But it’ll require a lot of work and like any exploit to a system, once discovered it will be fixed by the security researchers working for automakers, suppliers, and ride-sharing companies. So these types of exploits will be used sparingly.
A larger issue is employees with access to these systems using them for either their own gain or to track and stalk individuals. There are multiple instances of people using their positions in law enforcement and at tech companies for that purpose.
Self-driving robotaxis are still in their infancy stage and relegated to predetermined areas, while personal autonomous cars won’t be on the market for a very long time and will likely be far too expensive at the outset to risk using for crime. In other words, sure, you could use a self-driving car for crime, but it’s not going to be better and in most cases worse than doing crimes the old-fashioned way, with people.
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A plate company called Reviver has been working on the idea of digital license plates since 2009, and it’s taken time to get customers and states to approve the change.
Digital plates are more expensive than metal ones, sure, but they can do more, too, like display Amber Alerts or an “I’m Stolen” message.
Up next, if things continue to go well, we may see cars designed with built-in license plates.
Today, only two states allow digital license plates: California and Arizona. That’s slow progress for Reviver, which formed in 2009 to change how the old, metal-based automotive technology works. But things are about to change, and 2021 is when the company will finally step down hard on the “go ahead, try it out” accelerator.
That’s according to Neville Boston, Reviver founder and chief strategy officer, who told Car and Driver that his digital Rplates will be available in Michigan by the beginning of the second quarter of 2021. Boston and his team met with Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson at an auto show a few years ago to discuss approving these non-traditional plates, and it wasn’t difficult since, in Boston’s words, Benson is a technologist. The legislation is taken care of, and now it’s just a matter of integrating Rplates with the Secretary of State’s systems and databases.

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Integration is required because the Rplates do more than just take the letters and numbers of your license plate and turn them into pixels on a digital ink screen, similar to a black-and-white Kindle. By making the license plate a screen, Rplate lets people display their own (approved) messages. The plate can also warn people that the car it’s on has been stolen, or maybe to show an Amber or Silver Alert, if the state wants that functionality, Boston said. Rplate users can also pay their registration fees through Reviver, making annual renewals a paperless affair.
“You own the plate, but the message and plate number are owned by the state,” Boston said. “Think about it as a digital display until it’s actually activated and provisioned, and then it becomes a compliance tool.”
Those two aspects to the Rplate mean it has two costs, the price of the screen itself and then the subscription connection. The basic Rplate with a five-year battery is $499 and then either $55 a year or $4.99 a month. It is also available for $17.95 a month for 36 months. Everything’s a bit pricier with the wired Rplate Pro, which is the more powerful option that works best for fleets because it can offer telematics options through its built-in GPS system. The Pro costs $599 and $75 a year, or $599 and $6.99 a month to buy outright, or you can pay for it in installments of $24.95 a month for 36 months. Plus installation, of course.
Currently, a little over 4000 Rplates are running on the roads in California and Arizona, and Boston said he hopes to roughly double that number by the end of 2020. Looking ahead, between eight and 10 other states could approve the digital technology next year—Michigan first, then likely Georgia and Texas and others Boston declined to name—which is why the company claims there could be 100,000 or so in use by the end of 2021. Expansion will also be driven by dealership groups Reviver is working with to preload the battery-operated Rplate on some vehicles on their lots, as well as colleges and universities that will partner up to sell digital versions of the popular school plates.
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All of this growth will move Reviver along to the next big phase of its plans: cars with built-in digital plates. That’ll take a while, but you know it’s coming.
“We’ve actually had conversations with every one of the major OEMs around that,” Boston said. The automakers want to see more people using the plates and more states approving them before making any sort of commitment, but once the number of users grows, it “will allow us to have a more substantive conversation with the manufacturers,” he said.
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