Over the past couple of years, Amazon has been pushing its Alexa voice services (AVS) into every sort of device imaginable from wall clocks to microwave ovens. Cars are no exception although the lead times to bring new vehicles to market means that…

In April 2019, Ford Motor Company announced a major realignment of its senior executive team with two distinct organizations reporting up to CEO Jim Hackett. The automaker’s global legacy business of designing, building and selling trucks, SUVs and…

Contrary to the common wisdom in much of the media today, as well as those ensconced in the San Francisco Bay Area, California is not the center of the known universe. Believe it or not, a lot of interesting things happen outside the coastal regions…

If ever you needed proof that car buyers rarely make rational choices, just compare the sales of minivans to SUVs. For most people that need to haul groups of people on a regular basis and don't have substantial towing needs, the minivan is far more…

Over the past several weeks, Ford, GM and other automakers and suppliers have been working aggressively to leverage their purchasing, engineering and supply chain management capabilities to ramp up production of needed supplies to address the…

When any product has been in continuous production for decades on end, change or lack of it can become extremely controversial. This is especially true when the product in question is a sports car. Two decades after Porsche added a radiator to the…

Late last night, on the eve of the Los Angeles Auto Show media previews, Lincoln introduced a substantial mid-cycle refresh of the midsize MKZ sedan. One glance at the MKZ’s new nose confirms that the design direction that we saw on the Continental…

In recent decades, Flint, Mich. has been known better as a symbol of urban decay and lead-poisoned water than for high technology. However, situated in the heart of this troubled city is a relatively small educational institution that has had an…

Anyone paying attention to all of the news about autonomous vehicles from Google and other companies may have noticed a common thread in the stories, photos and videos. The roads are always dry and the sun is shining. That's because many of the…

As the endurance race to bring fully automated vehicles to market continues, engineers are increasingly focused on the practical realities of what it will take produce vehicles capable of safely operating without a human driver. While most of the…