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Next Ford Raptor spotted wearing aluminum skin

Well, look at what we have here. Judging from these spy shots, Ford is indeed working on the next generation of its off-road-ready F-150 Raptor pickup truck. We've made no attempt to hide our appreciation for the Baja-style truck, which combines most of the usability of a fullsize truck with heavy-duty suspension components to make a kind of performance vehicle that is unique in the market.
What we haven't known, until now, is whether Ford would push forward with its Raptor program now that it has a completely new F-150 to serve as its base. And that's especially true since Ford made the bold move of switching the bodywork of its best-seller from tried-and-true steel to aluminum. As you can see above, the front and rear of this silver truck are clad in current-gen Raptor bodywork, while the center section that houses the occupants appears to come from the upcoming 2015 F-150.
Dissecting the views above, we note a few interesting tidbits. First, there looks to be a bulge in the truck's hood. Second, we see a new grille between the current Raptor's headlights, sporting a mesh finish and two horizontal bars. Lastly, our eyes can't help but lock in on those burly A-arm suspension pieces down below, not to mention all that ground clearance the specialty suspenders bring to the table.

Ford partnering with MIT, Stanford on autonomous vehicle research

Ask any car engineer what's the biggest variable in achieving fuel economy targets, and he'll tell you "the driver." If one human can't understand human driving behavior enough to be certain about an innocuous number like miles per gallon, how is an autonomous car supposed to figure out what hundreds of other drivers are going to do in the course of a day? Ford has enlisted the help of Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to find out.
Starting with the automated Fusion Hybrid introduced in December, MIT will be developing algorithms that driverless cars can use to "predict actions of other vehicles and pedestrians" and objects within the three-dimensional map provided by its four LIDAR sensors.
The Stanford team will research how to extend the 'vision' of that LIDAR array beyond obstructions while driving, analogous to the way a driver uses the entire width of a lane to see what's ahead of a larger vehicle in front. Ford says it wants to "provide the vehicle with common sense" as part of its Blueprint for Mobility, preparing for an autonomous world from 2025 and beyond.

Ford Mondeo with 1.5-liter EcoBoost debuts in China

Does the car above, posing fancifully in white, look familiar? Well, it should. Although it wears Mondeo badges in the form you see above for the Chinese market - as it does in Europe - the car is basically the same thing sold in the US as the Ford Fusion. Of course, it's what's under that shapely skin that counts.
Ford has chosen the Shanghai Motor Show as the venue with which to unveil its 1.5-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine. We'd heard about the engine before, but now we have a few performance estimates to share: 133 kW of power (about 178 horsepower) and 240 Nm of torque (about 177 pound-feet).
Those numbers pretty much confirm previous rumors indicating about 177 in each category, and it's right on par with what Ford's own 1.6-liter EcoBoost produces. Ford is claiming best-in-class fuel economy as well, but no specific figures have yet been provided. In any case, we'll surely have all the data soon enough, as the 1.5-liter mill is destined for the US Fusion in 2014.