2004 Chrysler Pt Cruiser Base Wagon 4-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

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Hundreds of Detroit residents line up to ride in autonomous cars

DETROIT — Members of the public got the chance Friday to take a free ride in a self-driving vehicle as part of an effort to clear up confusion about the technology. Hundreds signed up for the 6-minute journey that led riders through a course set up inside a Detroit convention center. Mary Van Der Maas heard about the opportunity on the radio and decided to give it a shot. The 73-year-old retiree from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, hopped into an autonomous Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan, and off she went. "I think that it's just ignorance that keeps us from wanting to do this. And once you experience it, it's marvelous," she said afterward. Daniel Schroeder, 17, said he "thought it was interesting how the car knew its route." "And then it could identify things in the road," said the high school junior from Troy, Michigan, who spent one of the days of his spring break at the demo inside Cobo Hall downtown. Rep. Debbie Dingell also rode in the driverless Pacifica, asking more than a few questions of organizers along the way. "Public confidence in autonomous vehicles has decreased, not increased, over the last year for a variety of reasons," the Democratic congresswoman said. "And people need to get to know it. They need to be hands-on. They need to see that it works." Dingell said she had asked her husband, the late John Dingell, the longest-serving member of Congress in the institution's history, to serve as an advocate for driverless cars, citing the technology's potential to benefit older Americans. "He just quite frankly didn't trust it," Debbie Dingell said. Technological hurdles and apprehension have limited attempts to deploy fully autonomous vehicles on public roadways. Uber pulled its self-driving cars out of Arizona last year after one of the ride-hailing service's autonomous cars struck and killed a woman as she crossed the street. Mary Moore of SAE International, an association of mobility engineers, said the idea behind the Detroit event is to "use the facts, use what's on the market today to explain what the capabilities are today and then also give a glimpse into what can happen in the future." The event was sponsored by SAE International as well as Partners for Automated Vehicle Education, a coalition of industry, nonprofit and academic institutions whose goal is to inform and educate the public and policymakers about automated vehicles. It runs through Sunday and is free to attend.

Sunday Drive: Rendering the future at Jeep and Ford

Last week brought us quite a wide variety of automotive news nuggets, and judging by the response of our own readership, the Jeep Wrangler pickup truck led the way. It's not expected to hit the sales floor until April of 2019, which means we've all got an entire year to wait, but that just means we have lots of time to anticipate its arrival. And we do so today with a series of renderings that show what the so-called Scrambler may look like in a few different colors. Another set of renderings depicting a hotly anticipated new vehicle follow just behind. The Baby Bronco – will Ford ante up to the retro-inspired table and call it the Bronco II? – will be one size smaller than the regular-grade Bronco, and we think it'll compete with the Jeep Renegade as a subcompact crossover with some real off-road chops. Moving onto some tuners, both old and new(er), we first present a sweet old Dodge Ram pickup truck tuned by none other than Carroll Shelby himself. The blue and silver striped truck looks so period perfect that it stands out as a star even alongside a quartet of vintage Shelby Mustangs with which it will share space at the Bonhams auction in Greenwich, Conn., this June. And finally we turn our attention to the Hennessey Veliciraptor, an absolute behemoth of a truck. Based on the most excellent Ford Raptor, the Velociraptor ups the crazy quotient with six wheels and 600 hundred horsepower. As always, stay tuned to Autoblog this week for all the latest automotive news. Jeep Wrangler pickup renderings: Latest imaginings of the Scrambler Ford Baby Bronco comes alive in these exclusive renderings Bonhams to auction Carroll Shelby's prototypes and personal cars Hennessey VelociRaptor 6X6 First Drive Review: The incredible hulk

Michigan ponders its automotive future in the connected age

Few people take cars more seriously than Michiganders. I've been to the home of BMW in Germany. I've been to Kia's HQ in Korea. I've seen Honda's goods in Japan. No one, from the factory worker to the executive in her pinstriped suit, is more obsessed with cars than Michigan Inc. That's why it was interesting this week to see the state have a moment of introspection four hours north of the Motor City on a scenic island called Mackinac. Ironically, cars are not allowed here. Normally a tourist trap, it played placed host to the Mackinac Public Policy conference this week. While politics took center stage ( I may be the only person here not considering a run for governor) the evolution of the industry through connectivity and data was a theme of the conference. If you're reading this in New York, Silicon Valley, or one of the automotive heartlands listed above, you do care about this. If Michigan rethinks its approach to the car business – and makes moves to become more competitive – that affects you the consumer and enthusiast. It's jobs. It's technology, and it's a competition to see who's going to be the leader. More than a century after Henry Ford made mass production a thing, more than 70 years after Detroit's Arsenal of Democracy helped win World War II, and nearly a decade after the historic bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler, the car business is on solid footing again and looking to the future. What's next? Michigan is still home to thousands of auto workers, tech centers (including gleaming facilities built by Toyota and Hyundai), and the headquarters of the three American carmakers. Just because the economy is good doesn't mean it's a given connected cars and mobility advancements are going to come from this state. A lot of it's not. Tesla, Uber, Lyft, Faraday Future, and other transportation mediums have spouted up other places. Michigan leaders and Detroit's carmakers understand this reality. Reflecting on the past means admitting the future is not a given, a key undertone this week in Mackinac. It's about using existing resources, like skilled labor, to move forward. "We do have the number of technicians and technical expertise here in this state," says Stephen Polk," conference chair and former CEO of auto data firm R.L. Polk & Co. To that end, Ford is placing increased emphasis on a division called Smart Mobility, which is an in-house unit focusing on autonomy, connectivity, and forward-looking ideas.