Big Boy's Toys..

Mahindra teased its upcoming ICE-powered midsize pickup. The production model arrives three years after the concept. It rides on a ladder-frame chassis powered by a turbodiesel. Midsize pickups are on the rise everywhere, and Mahindra wants a piece of the popular segment. The Indian automaker dropped an official teaser ahead of an August 14 debut, giving away pieces of the exterior and interior of a truck it hasn’t named yet. More: You Can Buy Four Of These Wrangler Clones For One Jeep And Still Have Cash Left The truck is the production version of the Global Pik Up concept revealed exactly three years ago. It seems to keep the double-cab silhouette and rising character line of the concept, though the details have moved on. The teaser shows new headlights and taillights with sharp LED graphics, plus the Mahindra lettering across the tailgate. A Cabin That Looks Very Familiar Mahindra / YouT...

Ford weighed importing the Crown Vic to replace Australia’s Falcon. The plan was investigated, then dropped before any launch. Abimelec Design reimagined the sedan as an Aussie-style ute. Ford’s Crown Victoria earned its place in automotive history mostly by being everywhere in the US, doing time as a cop car and a taxi. Had a few decisions broken the other way, big body-on-frame sedan with a V8 powering the rear wheels might have been sold in Australia, and it could have ended up looking something like this. While Ford sold the Crown Vic across the US, it kept the Falcon in showrooms throughout Australia. When the time came to replace the EL-generation model, the automaker considered walking away from a locally built model and bringing in an import instead. The Crown Vic got its moment under the microscope during that process, but the plan went nowhere, and it never reached buyers Down Under. Read: No One Asked For A GTD Crown Vic, But...

Ford and Lincoln are rolling out an advanced AI Assistant. It functions as a smart, AI-infused owner’s manual. AI can access vehicle information to give recommendations. Owner’s manuals are full of useful information, but most people don’t even flip open the cover . Those that do are usually looking for something very specific and this means going to the index and hunting down what you’re after. In effect, it’s like using an encyclopedia and pretending its 1984. The Blue Oval is now bringing the experience into the 21st century with their AI Assistant. Announced earlier this year, the technology is baked into the Ford and Lincoln apps and brings “immediate, personalized intelligence” to approximately 8 million customers. More: Toyota And Google Team Up To Reinvent The Owner’s Manual With “Driver’s Companion” Virtual Assistant When you open the app, you can access the AI Assistant by tapping a blue celestial-style icon at the top. It ...

A Tesla driver was pulled over for speeding through Parker, Colorado. He insisted Autopilot was driving, not him, and demanded a supervisor. Autopilot is a Level 2 aid that still needs an attentive human driver. Tesla’s driver aids have been called several things over the years, among them impressive, dangerous, misleading, and even spooky. One thing they are not, though, is a legal substitute for the person sitting behind the wheel. A driver stopped in Parker, Colorado, apparently missed that memo and tried to make the case that his Tesla , not him, should be responsible for a speeding ticket. He didn’t hint at this idea. He demanded a supervisor over the argument. Body-camera footage released by the Parker Police Department shows an officer pulling over the Tesla after clocking it at 64 mph (103 km/h) in a 45 mph (72 km/h) zone. The driver’s explanation arrived almost immediately. “I wasn’t driving,” he said. “That’s assisted driving. Auto...