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Ford 'working very hard' on F-150 hybrid

The lighter, aluminum-bodied 2015 Ford F-150 gets (at best) 26 miles per gallon. That's not bad for a truck that size – and we should always remember that improving gas guzzlers can make a big difference – but what if the popular truck came with a gas-electric hybrid powertrain? How efficient would that be? We heard Ford talking about such a vehicle last year, and now we learn that Ford is still "working very hard" to make a F-150 hybrid happen. You want details? Well, we all want details, but those will not be coming for quite some time. Last year, Ford's global product development chief, Raj Nair, said that the company was planning to have hybrid pickups and hybrid SUVs on sale by 2020. With fuel prices dropping, Nair is now saying that a hybrid F-150 makes more sense, financially, than a diesel, but Ford could make both options available, depending on customer demand. The diesel wouldn't require all that much work, Nair said, since "we've got diesels in the portfolio." To date, the only hybrid F-150s we've seen have been conversions, often PHEVs, like this example from HVET or this one from Quantum. Pickup trucks from other manufacturers haven't been greeted with huge sales numbers. General Motors stopped making its big two-mode hybrids and cancelled the next-gen program.

2017 Ford F-150 Raptor desert testing heats up

In case there was any doubt, Ford is taking the development of the second-generation SVT Raptor very, very seriously. The Blue Oval recently completed over 1,000 miles of testing in the boiling heat of the American southwest. Apparently, that mileage was accrued over a 66-mile route designed to mimic the torturous terrain encountered by racers in the Baja 1,000 off-road race. The prototypes, which were built from a mix of existing and next-gen Raptor components, were tested with "fast sandy washes, deep-rutted silt beds, steep climbs in deep sand, and slow meticulous crawls through tight trenches." Ford claims the new truck managed to run the circuit 25-percent faster than the current F-150 SVT Raptor, averaging 50 miles per hour while going as fast as 100 mph in stretches. That said, Dearborn didn't release any dedicated times, so it's unclear just how quickly the 66-mile stage was completed. We do know that durability was a big part of the testing. Ford claims each lap was completed by what sounds like a pretty significant jump, with the trucks ascending a steep ramp onto a two-foot plateau and then completing a step-down to level ground. We have to take Ford at its word here, though. "Steep" can mean any number of things, and we've no idea just how fast the trucks were hitting the ramp or how much air they got. Hopefully, the jumps were aggressive enough to prevent future frame issues. Still, Ford boasting about how rough the Raptor's testing is can be taken as a positive sign for fans of the next-generation of SVT's rugged pickup. NEW F-150 RAPTOR WRAPS UP INITIAL DESERT DURABILITY TESTING DEARBORN, Mich., July 7, 2015 – The 2017 F-150 Raptor – Ford's toughest, smartest, most capable off-road truck ever – recently completed more than 1,000 miles of testing in the southwestern United States. Over 1,028 miles of desert trail designed to parallel the Baja race course in Mexico, the 66-mile route featured a wide range of surfaces including fast sandy washes, deep-rutted silt beds, steep climbs in deep sand, and slow meticulous crawls through tight trenches. The truck topped speeds of 100 mph in places, slowing to 10 mph in others, for an average speed of approximately 50 mph. The 2017 Raptor is 25 percent faster than the current truck based on lap times. At the end of each lap, the new Raptor completed a tabletop jump consisting of a steep ramp up to a two-foot plateau, then a step-off back to level ground.

The next-generation wearable will be your car

This year's CES has had a heavy emphasis on the class of device known as the "wearable" – think about the Apple Watch, or Fitbit, if that's helpful. These devices usually piggyback off of a smartphone's hardware or some other data connection and utilize various onboard sensors and feedback devices to interact with the wearer. In the case of the Fitbit, it's health tracking through sensors that monitor your pulse and movement; for the Apple Watch and similar devices, it's all that and some more. Manufacturers seem to be developing a consensus that vehicles should be taking on some of a wearable's functionality. As evidenced by Volvo's newly announced tie-up with the Microsoft Band 2 fitness tracking wearable, car manufacturers are starting to explore how wearable devices will help drivers. The On Call app brings voice commands, spoken into the Band 2, into the mix. It'll allow you to pass an address from your smartphone's agenda right to your Volvo's nav system, or to preheat your car. Eventually, Volvo would like your car to learn things about your routines, and communicate back to you – or even, improvise to help you wake up earlier to avoid that traffic that might make you late. Do you need to buy a device, like the $249 Band 2, and always wear it to have these sorts of interactions with your car? Despite the emphasis on wearables, CES 2016 has also given us a glimmer of a vehicle future that cuts out the wearable middleman entirely. Take Audi's new Fit Driver project. The goal is to reduce driver stress levels, prevent driver fatigue, and provide a relaxing interior environment by adjusting cabin elements like seat massage, climate control, and even the interior lighting. While it focuses on a wearable device to monitor heart rate and skin temperature, the Audi itself will use on-board sensors to examine driving style and breathing rate as well as external conditions – the weather, traffic, that sort of thing. Could the seats measure skin temperature? Could the seatbelt measure heart rate? Seems like Audi might not need the wearable at all – the car's already doing most of the work. Whether there's a device on a driver's wrist or not, manufacturers seem to be developing a consensus that vehicles should be taking on some of a wearable's functionality.