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Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is suing Volkswagen Group to stop it from selling its high-end SUVs from VW, Audi, and Porsche in the U.S. market because they use an off-road mode similar to Land Rover’s.
JLR says the off-road mode, first seen on a VW product in the Bentley Bentayga, infringes on the Land Rover Terrain Response system patent.
The most recent set of lawsuits was filed on November 19 and targets the Audi A6 Allroad, Q5, Q7, and Q8; the Lamborghini Urus; and the Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Tiguan, as Bloomberg News first reported.
Jaguar Land Rover has filed a set of lawsuits demanding that its rival, the Volkswagen Group, be forbidden to sell new VW, Audi, and Porsche SUVs in the United States. That’s a huge ask, but it started very small: with the chrome dial on the Bentley Bentayga’s center console, the one encircled by cactuses and snowflakes.
It was a quiet spat until last week, when JLR in one day launched four U.S. lawsuits in two states and an unfair trade complaint against the entire VW Group. JLR, after years of unsuccessful negotiations with one of its largest competitors, now wants the U.S. to ban the importation of nearly every new VW, Audi, and Porsche with an off-road mode.

2017 Bentley Bentayga’s driving-mode dial.

If this much fury over a driving-mode switch sounds crazy, allow us to explain, as evidenced by years and dozens of filings we reviewed in U.S. district courts, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Terrain Response and the Bentley Bentayga’s Alleged Copy
The Bentayga launched in 2016 as the world’s fastest and most expensive SUV. In that year, we whipped a Bentayga to 60 mph almost two full seconds ahead of the best Range Rover, and then tore another one through the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab. But the Bentayga had a rockier start. When the EXP 9 F concept debuted at Geneva, it was so universally panned that Bentley reportedly began redesigning the exterior a week after the show.

Bentley Unveils Shocking EXP 9 F SUV Concept

While the production Bentayga looked better, it shared many components with the VW Group’s lesser brands and has faced more competition in the super-luxe-SUV segment—hence, a 2021 refresh arrived much earlier than by the usual company standard. In that time, Land Rover responded by stuffing the Range Rover with more lavish long-wheelbase trims and more power, and by offering a hand-built two-door variant the company later abandoned. With the addition of the new Aston Martin DBX, and to the delight of the very wealthy, the market now has four British luxury SUVs priced in the $200,000 range.

Terrain Response on 2017 Land Rover Discovery.
Land Rover

But lawyers and engineers at Jaguar Land Rover are less than delighted with the Bentayga. To them, the Drive Dynamics mode in the Bentayga ripped off Land Rover’s Terrain Response. That system, introduced on the 2005 LR3, offered a level of electronic control and customization unlike any other vehicle at the time. Five preset settings optimized the ABS, throttle and transmission tuning, differential locks, and air suspension for a variety of surfaces, indicated by icons on the center console (general, grass/gravel/snow, mud and ruts, sand, and rock crawl). Building on two older British patents filed by Ford, Land Rover submitted a patent application for Terrain Response to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2003. It was approved in 2008.

JLR patent drawing, showing relationship of differentials to suspension and wheels.
USPTO

The Bentayga continues to offer four on-road driving modes as standard (Comfort, Sport, Custom, Bentley), and an All-Terrain Specification. That option, which adds four off-road modes, was the red flag. Twisting the dial to these modes (Snow & Grass, Dirt & Gravel, Mud & Trail, Sand) can change the vehicle’s behavior in a similar method as Terrain Response. For example, in Sand mode, the Bentley and the Land Rover will delay ABS intervention to allow loose sand to build up underneath the front tires, which shortens braking distances compared to stopping on firmer surfaces. The Bentayga also adjusts its ride height, steering, throttle, transmission, and various other systems to coincide with a given surface.
Car and Driver has no knowledge if other automakers, such as Ford, are currently paying royalties to Jaguar Land Rover for selling vehicles with similar terrain-adaptive driving modes. Vehicles of all types with multiple driving modes that control multiple vehicle parts are now becoming common. Technology licensing is also common in the auto industry—so in February 2016, that’s exactly what Jaguar Land Rover had in mind when it sent a friendly letter to Bentley, in which it alleged infringement of its patented Terrain Response.
Patent Talks
Bentley didn’t believe it had violated any patent, and it didn’t intend to pay royalties for what it saw as a commonplace feature in a luxury SUV. That sparked Land Rover to rewrite its original U.S. patent to detail, with more exacting clarity, the features it charged Bentley with copying. By September 2016, Land Rover submitted an application that would reissue its 2008 patent with dozens of new claims, such as defining its system as “having driving modes that include at least two off-road modes and an on-road mode,” according to the patent and filings submitted by both automakers. A year later, Land Rover sent another letter to Porsche, alleging that its Cayenne was now infringing the Terrain Response patent and required licensing.
By February 2018, with talks going nowhere, Land Rover told Bentley its reissued patent would be approved “shortly.” The original patent did have a potential loophole. It described how the various driving modes worked but didn’t frame them in the unique context of the driver’s benefit—that a driver would have “direct input regarding the surface terrain.” When the patent office approved the reissue in May, Land Rover conceivably would be in a more secure position to demand royalties from Bentley. It sued Bentley for patent infringement—of the new patent that had just gone into effect—a month later.
In July, according to the lawsuit documents, Land Rover sent two more infringement letters to Audi and Lamborghini, specifically for the ANIMA system on the Lamborghini Urus and for Audi Drive Select on the Q5, Q7, and e-tron. Bentley shot back in October. In a motion to dismiss the case, the automaker said Land Rover’s entire 2018 patent should be declared invalid.
“The patent at issue in this case does not purport to solve a technological problem,” Bentley said in the filing. “Instead, its claims are directed to the concept of controlling a vehicle on the basis of a driver-selected driving surface—an abstract idea that is not patentable under Supreme Court precedent.”
In 2019, Bentley filed two petitions with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board—a body of patent judges that rule on disputes much quicker than the larger trial system—attempting to negate Land Rover’s new claims. In them, Bentley referenced the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII, Hummer H2, and Porsche 959 as three “obvious” examples that automakers, well before Land Rover’s first patent, had been selling cars with selectable on- and off-road modes.

What Does Terrain Response Do?

“People are out in the world right now deciding, am I going to buy a Bentayga or a Range Rover?” Land Rover said in a hearing before the patent board in 2019. “Range Rover is the well-known leader of Terrain Response. It’s brand-defining technology, Your Honor, that Bentley has put in their vehicle.”

Excerpt of status hearing transcript, 9/17/19.
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of VA

Bentley, in one petition, said Land Rover was simply “reciting new limitations related to the conventional use of common automotive subsystems.”
By August 2019, the board denied both of Bentley’s petitions. In March and October of this year, it denied the automaker’s request for rehearings. In one response, the board said it didn’t think Bentley’s argument about the 959’s center and rear differentials being separate “subsystems” was valid. Bentley’s trove of supporting research—everything from a Hummer press kit to an Infiniti QX4 owner’s manual to Car and Driver’s own 2013 story about Porsche transmissions—wasn’t enough to invalidate JLR’s patent.
Banning VW Imports?
On November 19, with its lawsuit against Bentley still pending, Jaguar Land Rover filed four more lawsuits against Volkswagen Group of America, Porsche Cars North America, Audi of America, and Automobili Lamborghini America for patent infringement. On the same day, Jaguar Land Rover filed a request to the U.S. International Trade Commission to investigate the automakers under unfair competition laws and block their vehicle imports. Specifically, according to contents of the letter released to Bloomberg, Jaguar Land Rover is targeting the Cayenne, Urus, Tiguan, A6 Allroad, Q5, Q7, and Q8.
Regarding the lawsuits, a spokesman for the Volkswagen Group of America issued this statement: “The Volkswagen Group is examining the action in order to determine further steps. We will not comment any further regarding an ongoing proceeding at this stage.”
A spokesman for Jaguar Land Rover North America said the company “does not comment on ongoing legal disputes; however, protecting our Intellectual Property is something we take very seriously.”
According to the most recent lawsuits, Jaguar Land Rover wants to recoup years of back royalties and damages. The VW Group, while it has not formally responded, wants to avoid federal repercussions over illegally imported vehicles, especially after the diesel-emissions scandal of a few years ago in which it was found guilty and fined billions by the U.S. Given the pending court cases and the trade commission investigation, it’s likelier the VW Group will settle with JLR without having to formally license its current and future vehicles.
Until then, keep buying all the expensive SUVs your budget can handle and drive them in any mode you want.
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Hyundai Motor America has agreed to pay a cash penalty of $54 million and other fines that could add up to $140 million. Kia Motors America was also fined and could pay as much as $70 million.
This is the result of an inquiry by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into its recalls of the 2011–2014 Sonata and 2013–2014 Santa Fe Sport SUV, as well as Kia vehicles from 2011–2014 model years.
Hyundai has created a dedicated engine recall website as part of the agreement, to ensure owners get timely information.
Hyundai Motor America announced today that it has reached an agreement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) following an investigation into the way it conducted a recall. The problem involved the automaker’s 2.0- and 2.4-liter Theta II engines in the 2011–2014 Hyundai Sonata and the 2013–2014 Santa Fe Sport, in which metal debris created during machining operations at the factory led to premature bearing wear and potential engine failure.

NHTSA Looking into Hyundai and Kia Engine Fires

NHTSA’s investigation concluded that the automaker did not recall 1.6 million vehicles subject to the problem “in a timely fashion,” as Reuters reported today, and that Hyundai did not give out accurate information about the recalls.
Total penalties include a $54 million fine to be paid first, an agreement to put $40 million into improving safety operations, and a potential additional $46 million fine that may be levied later depending on how well Hyundai meets NHTSA’s requirements in the newly issued Consent Order.
Kia, through a separate Consent Order, was fined $27 million in cash penalties plus a potential later fine of $27 million, and the requirement to pay $16 million for safety process improvement. This is related to a separate recall including the 2011–2014 Optima, 2012–2014 Sorento, and 2011–2013 Sportage, also with the 2.0- and 2.4-liter Theta II engines, NHTSA’s order said.
The company will set up new IT systems “to better analyze safety data and identify potential safety issues,” and it will set up a new field testing and inspection laboratory in the U.S., Hyundai said.

2012 Hyundai Sonata.
Hyundai

Hyundai said that it has issued a second recall for recalled vehicles that have already had their engines replaced. The move is made “out of an abundance of caution,” and the company said it will “inspect and confirm proper reinstallation of the fuel tube to the high-pressure fuel pump.”
Hyundai has created an engine recalls website for consumers who need more information about this recall. The site also covers a recall involving more Hyundai and Kia models that calls for a software update. The Hyundai website and NHTSA recall website also allow owners to find out if their vehicles are included.
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The Morgan 3 Wheeler, which looks vintage but has been built only since 2011, is being discontinued early in 2021.
The company has already sold all 33 limited-run copies of the final P101 3 Wheeler, priced at $59,000 in four styles called Belly Tank, Aviator, Race Car, and Dazzleship (pictured above).
Morgan plans to bring back the 3 Wheeler with a European-emissions-compliant motorcycle engine in the near future.
While the Morgan 3 Wheeler is about as English as it’s possible to be without saying “Tally ho” or knowing the minor rules of cricket, this eccentric retro-trike has used an American heart since it was launched in 2011. Which is the reason it is about to retire, in its present form at least: the air-cooled S&S V-twin motorcycle engine is unable to meet forthcoming European emissions standards.

2013 Morgan 3 Wheeler Tested: Three for the Road

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Morgan Plus Six Is a Window to the Past

The British sports-car maker has announced that production of the current 3 Wheeler will end early next year, with the celebratory edition wearing one of four eye-catching liveries to see it out in style. The company says that all 33 production slots of the limited run P101 have already been allocated, so if you want one you are too late.
While Morgan has four-wheeled models to sell in other parts of the world, the 3 Wheeler’s demise seems to raise an existential threat to the brand in America, where it has been the only vehicle that Morgan’s tenacious dealers have been able to offer for some time. The company has already told us it is hoping to bring its new BMW-powered aluminum-framed models to the U.S. under federal replica car legislation and we have already driven both the Plus Four and Plus Six in Britain. We’re also assured it will be launching a new three-wheeled model after what we’re told will be a brief gap, one that will be fully type approved for the U.S.
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Next 3 Won’t Be an EV
This won’t be a version of the electric 3 Wheeler the company started work on a few years ago—the stylish EV3, which replaced the S&S motor with a 20.0-kWh lithium-ion battery pack wrapped in stylish brass conductive cooling fins. That was canned before reaching series production, and although Morgan insiders say that electrification of all of its models will happen in the medium-term future, we’re told to expect the next-gen 3 Wheeler to launch with a combustion powerplant capable of passing European emissions, most likely a water-cooled motorcycle engine.

View Photos

Morgan

The 21st-century 3 Wheeler was inspired by the cars that Morgan started out building more than a century earlier and became one of the company’s most successful models of all time, selling more than 2500 examples. (Morgan typically makes just 850 cars of all sorts a year.) We drove a 2013 3 Wheeler on a tour of some of California’s abandoned towns, a memorable story written by the late Davey Johnson that is well worth another read.
The runout P101 3 Wheeler gets disc wheels in place of wire spokes and Hella driving lamps which we’re told have been positioned carefully to reduce turbulence around the front suspension. Black or white paint is offered, with the option of one of four graphics packs: the Belly Tank is inspired by lake racers and features what is described as a “distressed effect”; the Aviator brings RAF bomber–inspired nose art; the Race Car brings stripes and roundels; and the Dazzleship, seen here, carries a version of the Art Deco patterns that were intended to disguise the size and course of British warships from enemy submarines.
Morgan admits it could easily have sold out a much larger allocation of the P101. We’re told that 10 will be coming to buyers in the U.S., with the trike’s official MSRP a hefty $59,000.

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Aston Martin has debuted its DBX SUV in the U.S. at the Aston Martin Residences in Miami.
The 65-story, sail-shaped tower holds 391 apartments, priced from $970,000 to $50 million, with completion scheduled for 2022.
Seven penthouses and 38 Signature Residences come with the buyer’s choice of a limited-edition DBX or a DB11, or the three-story penthouse comes with the final Aston Martin Vulcan.
For the owner who has said, “I love my Aston Martin so much I could live in it,” the English purveyor of grand tourers would like to turn your attention to Miami. The Aston Martin Residences next to the Miami River, overlooking Biscayne Bay, are the automaker’s first wholesale luxury residential development, a 65-story, sail-shaped tower with 391 apartments. The tower isn’t scheduled for completion until 2022, but it enjoyed its christening when it hosted the debut of the DBX SUV in the Americas.

View Photos

Aston Martin

There should be plenty more examples of the DBX at the residences soon enough. Buyers of the 38 Signature apartments and seven penthouses will get to choose a housewarming gift of either a DBX Riverwalk Edition or DB11 Riverwalk Edition. Spec’d by Aston Martin’s executive VP and chief creative officer Marek Reichman, the Riverwalk Editions are limited to 45 examples just for this building. If you’re reaching for your calculators, know that Signature accommodations run from $5.3 million to $7.7 million, while single-level penthouses start at $14 million.

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At the top of the sail sits a three-story penthouse, taking up 27,191 square feet and costing $50 million. Instead of a welcome-to-the-neighborhood carrot cake, that owner will receive the final Aston Martin Vulcan as spec’d by Reichman. The Vulcan was the carbon-fiber-bodied, track-only beast powered by a 7.0-liter V-12 with 820 horsepower, limited to 24 units and priced at $2.3 million.

View Photos

Aston Martin Vulcan.
Aston Martin

Elsewhere among the luxury, in addition to a four-story suite of Sky Amenities such as a virtual golf room, chef’s kitchen, and two cinemas, the Aston Martin Residences will incorporate a deep-water superyacht marina with direct access to Biscayne Bay. Aston Martin hasn’t released a boat since the AM37 four years ago, but we can see that changing now.

Aston Martin DBX Shines When Driven Hard

How We’d Spec It: Aston Martin DBX

Aston DB11 AMR Answers to a Higher Power

As of writing, the residences are more than 60 percent sold. For jet setters with business in New York and wishing to stay on brand, there are five Aston Martin–designed residences at 130 William Street in Manhattan, and Aston Martin’s Galleries and Lairs service will soon complete the $7.7 million, 6000-square-foot Sylvan Rock house about 80 miles outside New York City that’s offered with a matching DBX in Onyx Black.
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Last week, we revealed our 10Best picks for 2021, which got us thinking about the history of the competition. We challenged the Window Shop crew to look at every winner since 1983 and pick their favorite. If you’ve watched this show before, it won’t surprise you that we all chose different cars since we rarely agree with one another about anything.
We invited former editor-in-chief and now contributor Csaba Csere along for this one. Csere attended every 10Best event from 1983 until just a few years ago. With performance and value on his mind, he puts up a 2005 Chevrolet Corvette (C6). Thinking along the same lines as Csere, contributor Jonathon Ramsey picks a fifth-generation Vette, but we can’t understand why he chose the garish Indy 500 pace-car version.
The other three choices come from Germany and trigger digressions about such things as the model names of Blaupunkt radios, how to reset the trip odometer in the Porsche 944’s interior, and why Car and Driver uses the term “naturally aspirated” instead of “normally aspirated.” If you watch to the end—or just skip ahead—you’ll see a rare consensus when we select the best of 10Best.
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