2014 Ford C-max Hybrid Sel on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2016: The year of the autonomous-car promise

About half of the news we covered this year related in some way to The Great Autonomous Future, or at least it seemed that way. If you listen to automakers, by 2020 everyone will be driving (riding?) around in self-driving cars. But what will they look like, how will we make the transition from driven to driverless, and how will laws and infrastructure adapt? We got very few answers to those questions, and instead were handed big promises, vague timelines, and a dose of misdirection by automakers. There has been a lot of talk, but we still don't know that much about these proposed vehicles, which are at least three years off. That's half a development cycle in this industry. We generally only start to get an idea of what a company will build about two years before it goes on sale. So instead of concrete information about autonomous cars, 2016 has brought us a lot of promises, many in the form of concept cars. They have popped up from just about every automaker accompanied by the CEO's pledge to deliver a Level 4 autonomous, all-electric model (usually a crossover) in a few years. It's very easy to say that a static design study sitting on a stage will be able to drive itself while projecting a movie on the windshield, but it's another thing entirely to make good on that promise. With a few exceptions, 2016 has been stuck in the promising stage. It's a strange thing, really; automakers are famous for responding with "we don't discuss future product" whenever we ask about models or variants known to be in the pipeline, yet when it comes to self-driving electric wondermobiles, companies have been falling all over themselves to let us know that theirs is coming soon, it'll be oh so great, and, hey, that makes them a mobility company now, not just an automaker. A lot of this is posturing and marketing, showing the public, shareholders, and the rest of the industry that "we're making one, too, we swear!" It has set off a domino effect – once a few companies make the guarantee, the rest feel forced to throw out a grandiose yet vague plan for an unknown future. And indeed there are usually scant details to go along with such announcements – an imprecise mileage estimate here, or a far-off, percentage-based goal there. Instead of useful discussion of future product, we get demonstrations of test mules, announcements of big R&D budgets and new test centers they'll fund, those futuristic concept cars, and, yeah, more promises.

Ford Police Interceptor with 2.0L EcoBoost rated most fuel-efficient police sedan

Back in September, Ford announced a non-pursuit version of its Police Interceptor Sedan, which swaps out a choice of two V6 engines for a fuel-efficient 2.0-liter EcoBoost inline four-cylinder. This Special Service Police Sedan will be marketed to law enforcement agencies looking to cut fuel costs and don't need the extra power.
For college campuses, detectives and the like, this new police car has now been certified with EPA fuel economy estimates of 20 miles per gallon in the city, 32 mpg on the highway and a combined rating of 24 mpg. These figures represent a decrease of two mpg in city and combined ratings compared to the civilian-spec 2014 Taurus. These police cars still offer active grille shutters for better aerodynamics, although we're guessing agencies upfitting their cars with light bars and push bumpers aren't exactly concerted with aerodynamics. The true benefit of the SSP version is when it's compared against other police sedan options like the Dodge Charger, Chevy Impala, Chevy Caprice and even the V6 Police Interceptor Sedan.
Ford claims the new Police Interceptor Sedan SSP is the most fuel-efficient current option for police departments, saying that this car can save $1,720 per car over three years and almost $260,000 over the same span of time for fleets with 150 vehicles. There is an official press release posted below, and also check out the gallery of images from Ford collected from various police agencies across the US (although none show the 2.0-liter SSP model). Head on over to Ford's Police Interceptor mini-site for even more pictures of the Police Interceptor Sedan and Utility.

Ford Explorer Jackson Pollock Edition results in trip to hospital

Among the many useful pieces of driving advice we've taken to heart over the years, "Safely secure all cargo" is etched pretty high on our personal stone tablets. We've had a couple of frustrating moments over the years (numerous wonky cupholders and too-tall lidded cups; a radar detector that released its suction cups and dashed itself below the dashboard, etc.), but never anything like the scene above.
These photos above come courtesy of the Washington State Patrol, and they show the unfortunate aftermath of a driver, his dog, and his Ford Explorer after it crashed near the town of Belfair last week. According to reports, the man was schlepping five-gallon containers of paint inside his vehicle when he was involved in an unexplained accident. It's not clear what triggered the crash, but the impromptu abstract painting covered the whole of the interior, including the driver and his faithful companion.
The man was transported to a local hospital for minor injuries, and his dog was cleaned and later taken to a humane society.