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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.

2020 Ford Explorer vs 3-row crossover rivals: How they compare on paper

The 2020 Ford Explorer has finally landed, and if history serves as an indicator, it should be bigger than sliced bread. And people sure love themselves some sliced bread. This new Explorer may look familiar on the outside, but beneath the skin is a radically new rear-drive platform related to the Ford Mustang (as opposed to a front-drive platform related to the Ford Taurus and a Volvo from the 1990s). Turbocharged four- and six-cylinder engines now exclusively rest under its hood, which as you'll see below, both better anything its competitors offer. Ah, but if you're curious to know how the new 2020 Explorer compares to its various three-row family crossover rivals, take a look at the chart below where we stack it up against the 2019 Chevrolet Traverse, 2019 Honda Pilot, 2020 Hyundai Palisade, 2019 Subaru Ascent and 2019 Toyota Highlander. There are others of course (Mazda CX-9, Dodge Durango, GMC Acadia, VW Atlas), but we only had so much room on the chart, and these were the newest and/or most likely to be cross-shopped with the new Explorer. Engine specs and towing Although the Traverse's V6 just nips it on horsepower, the 2020 Explorer's base 2.3-liter "EcoBoost" turbocharged four-cylinder engine smokes it on torque. Therefore, "best-in-class" power seems like a fair claim from Ford. That there's also a 365-horsepower turbo V6 available, plus a hybrid and even-more powerful ST model on the way shows that Ford isn't kidding around under the hood. Curb weight also seems competitive for the segment. In terms of drivetrain, the Explorer is the only member of this particular group to come standard with rear-wheel drive (2.3-liter only). The Durango is the only other three-row, non-luxury crossover to do so. This is significant for two reasons: First, you could potentially do a power slide in an Explorer. Second, and more important, those in the Snowbelt will have to opt for all-wheel drive (it comes standard with the 3.0-liter). By contrast, a set of winter tires will probably do the job just fine if you want to save some money and gas by sticking with its rivals' standard front-wheel drive. Well, except for the Subaru Ascent — that's standard with AWD. In terms of towing, the Explorer takes the cake with as much as 5,300 pounds for the four-cylinder and 5,600 pounds for the V6. Everything else tops out at 5,000, though again, the Durango is capable of besting them all thanks to its Hemi V8 engine option.

Hyundai Ioniq hybrid and EV sales begin this month

South Korean automaker Hyundai will start selling its Ioniq hybrid and electric-vehicle variants at some US dealerships by the end of the month. While reports have surfaced saying the Ioniqs may be available as soon as this week, Hyundai spokesman Jim Trainor confirmed to Autoblog that the Ioniq EV and hybrid would arrive at dealers towards the end of February. California will be the primary EV target from launch, naturally. Hyundai got some good news in late December when the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rated the Ioniq Hybrid's combined fuel efficiency at 55 miles per gallon, or three mpg ahead of the standard 2017 Toyota Prius hatchback. Less rosy is the Ioniq EV's single-charge range, which falls well short of the magic 200-mile number reached by Chevrolet's recently-debuted Bolt, checking in at 124 miles. Still, the Ioniq EV trumps the Chevrolet Bolt in terms of miles-per-gallon-equivalent (i.e. electricity used per mile), getting a 136-mpge combined rating versus the Bolt's 119. The Ioniq Plug-in Hybrid (or the "Blue") gets 58 mpg combined and can go as far as 31 miles on electricity alone. That variant may see the light of day as soon as September. The automaker first showed off versions of the four-door sedan at last year's New York Auto Show. Hyundai, which currently sells a hybrid version of the Sonata, is planning to have as many as 14 electrified-powertrain vehicles by 2020. Green-car watchers are hoping the Ioniq EV and hybrids won't be low-volume affairs and will add to the momentum already generated this year by the introduction of the Bolt as well as higher demand for models such as the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Honda Accord Hybrid. Last month, total US green-car sales were up about 27 percent from a year earlier, while plug-in sales surged 74 percent. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2017 Hyundai Ioniq: New York 2016 View 11 Photos Image Credit: Drew Phillips Green Hyundai AutoblogGreen Exclusive Hatchback Electric Hybrid hyundai ioniq hyundai ioniq electric hyundai ioniq plug-in