All posts tagged: Ford

The Cybertruck Appears to Be More Deadly Than the Infamous Ford Pinto, According to a New Analysis

The Cybertruck Appears to Be More Deadly Than the Infamous Ford Pinto, According to a New Analysis

Published by José

Explosive. On New Years morning this year, US Army Master Sergeant Matthew Livelsberger rolled his rental cybertruck up near the front doors of Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. Levelsberger then armed a device which would soon detonate a collection of gas canisters and explosive fireworks, blowing the windows out of the hotel and injuring seven bystanders. Never one to waste a tragedy, Musk soon took to X-formerly-Twitter to brag up that the “Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards” — a claim which inadvertently led to the revelation that Tesla tracks and can remotely lock vehicles. Now a year into the Cybertruck’s lifespan, it turns out that explosions might be the only thing they make safer. A new analysis by independent automotive blog FuelArc suggests that fire fatalities are 17 times more likely in a Cybertruck than in the infamous Ford Pinto — the posterchild deadly cars if ever there was one. The site arrives at that conclusion by comparing the total units sold so far — 34,438 for the Cybertruck, compared to 3,173,491 …

Honda, Hyundai, Ford, Kia EV sales climb higher in January

Honda, Hyundai, Ford, Kia EV sales climb higher in January

Published by skeptic

Several automakers, including Honda, Hyundai, Ford, and Kia, reported higher EV sales in the US in January. Here’s a look at some of the top-selling EV models (outside of Tesla) last month. EV sales in the US by model in January 2025 With nearly 133,000 electric vehicles sold in December, EVs accounted for 8.8% of new car sales in the US, a new record. According to Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book, the strong end-of-year sales helped push total EV sales to 1.3 million in 2024, up 7.3% from 2024. With Trump reportedly planning to end electric vehicle incentives, like the $7,500 federal tax credit, demand is expected to pick up as buyers look to lock in the savings before they disappear. Several automakers reported US sales numbers for January, giving us a better idea of how the EV market is playing out. Ford sold 5,666 EVs last month, up 21% and a new January record. The Mustang Mach-E had its best January with 3,529 models sold, up 173% from January 2024. Last year, the Mach-E …

Harrison Ford on His New Glenmorangie Campaign and Climbing a Mountain in a Custom Palace Kilt

Harrison Ford on His New Glenmorangie Campaign and Climbing a Mountain in a Custom Palace Kilt

Published by skeptic

Let the record show that Harrison Ford was into his kilt. The last time I interviewed Ford, I asked him about his shorts. This time around, we’re focusing on a kilt. Specifically, a custom kilt designed for him by the streetwear brand Palace, to wear in a new global campaign for Glenmorangie single malt Scotch whisky. Once Upon a Time in Scotland, which dropped today, consists of a series of episodes directed by Joel Edgerton that tell the story of Ford traveling to Tain, in the Scottish Highlands, where the Glenmorangie distillery is housed. He lounges around a castle, learns how Glenmorangie is made, and learns how to pronounce it (that would be ​​Glen-MOR-uhn-jee). (The accompanying music features the best bagpiping happening within proximity to Ford since 1993’s The Fugitive.) In one of the vignettes, he’s presented with the custom Palace kilt to wear. “That’ll never happen,” onscreen Harrison Ford declares, before ultimately acquiescing. Actual Harrison Ford felt differently, he tells me. “The kilt, I thought, looked quite good on me. It hits a nice …

Rivian (RIVN) outpaced Ford for America’s best-selling electric van

Rivian (RIVN) outpaced Ford for America’s best-selling electric van

Published by skeptic

Rivian (RIVN) had the best-selling electric van in the US last year, topping Ford for the title. The electric delivery van (EDV) is rolling out across the US through its partnership with Amazon, but Rivian is expanding with new customers. Rivian EDV was the best-selling electric van in the US With over 51,500 electric vehicles delivered in 2024, Rivian beat expectations. Although it was only slightly higher than the 50,122 delivered in 2023, things picked up in the second half of the year. Rivian shut down its manufacturing plant in Normal, IL, last April to introduce new upgrades designed to cut costs and increase efficiency. To make matters worse, Rivian had to temporarily pause electric van production last summer due to a part shortage. After releasing fourth quarter and full-year 2024 delivery and production figures in early January, Rivian said, “The previously discussed shortage of a shared component on the R1 and RCV platforms is no longer a constraint.” New Kelley Blue Book estimates show that Rivian outpaced Ford with America’s best-selling electric van in 2024. Q4 …

DHL deploys autonomous Oxa Ford in live airport traffic

DHL deploys autonomous Oxa Ford in live airport traffic

Published by skeptic

International shipping giants DHL partnered with autonomous software company Oxa to deploy a self-driving car in live airport traffic at Heathrow, safely completing more than 800 miles of fully autonomous driving in just 14 days. DHL has been a leader in decarbonization and new technology for years, and have maintained a Strategic Partnership with London Heathrow Airport since 2020, with the company providing baggage logistics and other support services. The project with Oxa, then, is part of a bid to use autonomy to optimize airside operations and improve efficiency across the inter-terminal baggage transfer service. “There are huge opportunities to modernize airport supply chains with intelligent, self-driving vehicles that improve the entire customer experience,” explains Gavin Jackson, CEO of Oxa. “We are delighted to partner with DHL in order to support the use of autonomous vehicles within airside operations at Heathrow and around the world – working towards fully automated (airport) logistics at scale.” This initial proof-of-concept was conducted using an automated Ford sedan, but with a view to ultimately utilizing vehicle platforms more suitable …

2,000 hp electric Ford Supervan drifts on Top Gear test track

2,000 hp electric Ford Supervan drifts on Top Gear test track

Published by skeptic

The Top Gear TV show might be over, but its tamed racing driver – a masked, anonymous hot shoe known only as “the Stig” – lives on … and his latest adventure involves pitching the 1,400 hp electric Ford SuperVan demonstration vehicle around the famed Top Gear test track. Sideways. Whether we’re talking about record lap times at hallowed motorsports grounds like Bathhurst or the Hillclimb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, we’ve been covering the 1,400 hp SuperVan project for some time – but the big boxy Transit-ish racing van with hypercar-slaying performance never seems to get boring. In this video from the official Top Gear YouTube channel (is Top Gear just a YouTube show, now?), the boxy Ford racer seems to have sprouted an additional 600 peak horsepower in its latest “4.2” iteration, for a stout 2,000 hp total. For his (?) part, the Stig puts all of those horses to work in what appears to be a serious attempt to take the overall track record. I won’t spoil the outcome for you, but suffice it …

Francis Ford Coppola Picks His Favorite Criterion Movies & Gives Advice to Filmmakers

Francis Ford Coppola Picks His Favorite Criterion Movies & Gives Advice to Filmmakers

Published by José

Upon step­ping into the hal­lowed Cri­te­ri­on Clos­et, stocked with hun­dreds of that cinephile video label’s finest releas­es, Fran­cis Ford Cop­po­la speaks of a direc­tor who “believed in a film he want­ed to make, and used his entire for­tune, because the financ­ing sys­tem of the time would­n’t finance it. And it came out and it was a big flop, and he died sort of pen­ni­less, not real­iz­ing that this film he put every­thing up for” would “be con­sid­ered today the mas­ter­piece that we con­sid­er it.” The auteur in ques­tion is Jacques Tati, and the film is Play­time, though one imag­ines that Cop­po­la’s own recent expe­ri­ence with Mega­lopo­lis was­n’t so very far from his mind. “I think he’s the only film­mak­er, oth­er than present com­pa­ny, who took a big hunk of what wealth he had earned in his life and put it up to make a film that nobody else would make,” Cop­po­la con­tin­ues. But when you do that, “usu­al­ly it with­stands the test of time.” His long career has afford­ed him many a les­son in the unex­pect­ed turns a …

The Electric Explorer’s Nightmare Launch Shows Everything Ford Gets Right and Wrong About EVs

The Electric Explorer’s Nightmare Launch Shows Everything Ford Gets Right and Wrong About EVs

Published by skeptic

I asked Amko Leenart, director of design for Ford Europe, about why Ford used VW’s woeful controls in both the Explorer and the Capri, and he told me Ford worked with a partner to better the response on the sliders (but wouldn’t tell me how), then admitted that “we tried to improve it a bit—and I think we did—but at the same time, it is what it is. VW is our supplier on certain parts, and at the time we had to make that choice.” It’s such a shame, because these decisions, made on balance sheets and in meeting rooms, can kill perfectly fine cars. And in the case of the Explorer this is compounded because its a good EV, is quiet on the road, and has a good range and a distinctive, winning exterior. Courtesy of Ford I get the delays to the project means that the Explorer and Capri missed their window of opportunity and that potentially better competitor options landed just at the wrong time for Ford—but by focusing on range above …

The Junky’s Christmas: William S. Burrough’s Dark Claymation Christmas Film Produced by Francis Ford Coppola (1993)

The Junky’s Christmas: William S. Burrough’s Dark Claymation Christmas Film Produced by Francis Ford Coppola (1993)

Published by José

Back in 1993, the Beat writer William S. Bur­roughs wrote and nar­rat­ed a 21-minute clay­ma­tion Christ­mas film odd­ly pro­duced by Fran­cis Ford Cop­po­la. And, as you can well imag­ine, it’s not your nor­mal hap­py Christ­mas flick. Nope, this film – The Junky’s Christ­mas – is all about Dan­ny the Car­wiper, a junkie, who spends Christ­mas Day try­ing to score a fix. Even­tu­al­ly he finds the Christ­mas spir­it when he shares some mor­phine with a young man suf­fer­ing from kid­ney stones, giv­ing him the “immac­u­late fix.” There you have it. Hap­py hol­i­days.… If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon. If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks! Relat­ed Con­tent  The “Priest” They Called Him: …

Harrison Ford Endorses Kamala Harris-Tim Walz Days Before 2024 Election

Harrison Ford Endorses Kamala Harris-Tim Walz Days Before 2024 Election

Published by skeptic

Harrison Ford is casting his vote in this year’s presidential election for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. The Shrinking star released three videos in partnership with the Harris-Walz campaign, where he explained his decision to support the vice president and Minnesota governor over Donald Trump. “When dozens of former members of the Trump administration are sounding alarms, saying, ‘For God’s sake, don’t do this again,’ you have to pay attention,” Ford said in one video (above). “They’re telling us something important. These aren’t soft people. They’re governors, generals, standing up against the leader of the party they spent their lives advocating for.” He explained that for many people, this will be the first time they’ve ever voted for someone who doesn’t have an “R” for Republican next to the names listed because “they know this really matters.” “The truth is this, Kamala Harris will protect your right to disagree with her about policies or ideas, and then, as we have done for centuries, we’ll debate them. We’ll work on them together, and we’ll move forward,” …