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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.

Michigan Considers Killing License-Plate Stickers

Ohio No Longer Requires Front License Plate

California License Plates Go Digital

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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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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U.S. dealers have a million fewer cars in inventory than last fall, but they’re seeing an upside to offering less choice. More