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- 2019 Ram 1500 pickup truck gets jump on Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra
- Alexa Replaces Some Spoken Responses With Beeps
- Ford Teases New Green SUV Lineup, Aiming To Surpass Toyota As No. 1 In US Hybrids
| 2019 Ram 1500 pickup truck gets jump on Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra Posted: 16 Mar 2018 06:38 AM PDT CLOSE  Roomy cab and luxurious features give Ram a jump on new Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra. Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — In what's about to become the hottest year ever for new pickup truck unveilings, the 2019 Ram 1500 hits the road first with a smooth, quiet ride and high-end features no competitor can top. I just spent a day driving a loaded Ram 1500 Limited pickup through Arizona's roads and desert. The all-new Ram 1500 should be in dealerships by the end of March. It competes with full-size pickups, including the Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150, GMC Sierra, Nissan Titan and Toyota Tundra. The Silverado and Sierra also have all-new models coming this year, but they won't be on sale for months. Prices will run from $31,695 for a base Tradesman model to $53,890 for a Limited. The Ram will initially come only with Fiat Chrysler's famous Hemi 8-cylinder engine and a roomy four-door crew cab. Other models will follow, including 6-cylinder and Hemi engines with a mild hybrid system Ram says should improve fuel economy by about 10%. A pair of canisters mounted to the truck's frame eliminate engine vibrations, allowing the eight-cylinder engine to save fuel by shutting off four cylinders when it doesn't need full power. It worked like a charm. The Hemi in my test truck switched back and forth between eight cylinders or four cylinders frequently in traffic and when idling, but I knew only because I'd set the instrument panel to display that information. I spent most of the day in a high-end Limited model that had features including wood and metal interior trim, air suspension, wireless phone charging, a big dual-pane power sunroof, adaptive cruise control, and a 12-inch touch screen for navigation, audio and other systems. It will probably sticker at about $58,000 with all the options as tested. Ram expects the nonhybrid Hemi to score about the same in EPA fuel economy tests as the 2018 Ram 1500 — about 15 miles per gallon in the city, 22 on the highway and 17 combined with rear-wheel drive. A new version of Fiat Chrysler's eight-speed automatic transmission is standard. The interior is luxuriously roomy, thanks to a crew cab that's four inches longer than the old model. Three inches of that go into extra rear legroom. In addition to plenty of space to stretch out, the extra room — and a flat floor in the rear — also lends itself to storage bins under the floor and rear seat. The rear seat also reclines and has eight inches of fore and aft travel. Despite growing larger and adding plenty of new equipment, the new Ram is about 225 pounds lighter than the 2018 model, thanks largely to plentiful use of high-strength steel in the frame, body and bed. The pickup's payload and towing capacity increase about 20% to 2,300 and 12,750 pounds, respectively. The 5.7-liter 395-horsepower Hemi powering my test truck provided all the acceleration, offroad and towing ability that have made the engine an icon. The steering is precise and responsive, with good on-center feel. The brakes got bigger to handle bigger payloads and trailers, but brake feel was easy and direct, even with an empty bed. The optional air suspension adjusts to provide a comfortable ride with no load, while the standard steel suspension uses dual-stage springs to accomplish the same thing. The big 12-inch touchscreen is oriented vertically in the center stack, like an iPad. It can be split into two screens to control separate functions or devoted to a single feature, such as a large map for navigation. Based on a brief test, sensitivity seemed fine. Fiat Chrysler builds the 2019 in what amounts to a brand new assembly plant. It stripped every piece of manufacturing equipment out of the Sterling Heights, Mich., factory that used to build the Chrysler 200 sedan to convert it to the new Ram. The plant in Warren that has been Ram's home for decades will keep building the old model as long as there's demand for it, or until the company has to idle the plant to switch to producing a new version of the Ram 2500 and 3500 heavy-duty pickups, which it now builds in Mexico. 2019 Ram 1500 Limited crew cab 4x4 at a glance Vehicle type: Five-passenger full-size 4-wheel-drive pickup Price as tested (estimated): $58,000 Engine tested: 5.7-liter, 8-cylinder Power: 395 horsepower @ 5,600 rpm (with premium gasoline); 410 lb-ft or torque at 3,950 rpm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Estimated EPA fuel economy rating: 15 mpg city/22 highway/17 combined Wheelbase: 144.6 ins. Length: 232.9 ins. Width: 82.1 ins. Height: 77.6 ins. Assembly site: Sterling Heights, Mich. Follow Detroit Free Press auto critic Mark Phelan on Twitter @Mark_Phelan. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2Ivn2dt |
| Alexa Replaces Some Spoken Responses With Beeps Posted: 16 Mar 2018 07:46 AM PDT  Asking Alexa to do something results in a vocal response (unless she's lost her voice), but that's not always really necessary and Amazon is experimenting with replacing Alexa's voice with other sounds to convey a response. As The Verge reports, the change in Alexa's behavior was first discussed on Reddit. One user explained that, after asking Alexa to turn on the lights, she gave the usual "OK" response, but went on to say it would be the last time she would. In future, a beep sound would replace the "OK." It's this switch to non-speech responses that Amazon is calling Brief Mode. Apparently, it's already rolling out to Alexa devices and will appear in the settings menu of the Alexa app. Based on the Reddit user's experience, it looks as though Brief Mode will be turned on by default so it's up to the user to disable it if they prefer speech all the time. Beeps can't replace all responses, but any simple confirmation a command has been received will likely become a beep in Brief Mode. I would also hope Amazon expands the options to allow you to select from a range of beep sounds to act as confirmation. If it proves successful, Brief Mode could easily expand to include multiple beep responses based on context. It may also limit how often Alexa laughs at you. |
| Ford Teases New Green SUV Lineup, Aiming To Surpass Toyota As No. 1 In US Hybrids Posted: 15 Mar 2018 11:49 AM PDT  A new off-road utility is one of several new SUVs coming to Ford's lineup Any time an automaker's future is in question, the company typically pulls back the curtain on shiny new products to reassure dealers, analysts and the media that it's not lost in the wilderness. That's exactly what Ford Motor did Thursday after a wave of management turnover in recent months that has left the impression that Ford is behind competitors – auto industry rivals and tech newcomers, too -- when it comes to mapping the future of transportation. Chief Executive Jim Hackett, in the job for just 10 months, has come under criticism for not laying out details of his plan to cut costs and improve profitability while simultaneously navigating the disruptive changes sweeping across the industry. On Thursday, Hackett and his executive team put more meat on the bones of that transformation, outlining a broad revamp of its truck and SUV lineup over the next few years, including new hybrid powertrains for virtually every vehicle in its lineup. By 2020, Ford said it will have the freshest lineup of vehicles in the industry, with an average age of 3.3 years, down from almost 6 years today. Among them will be four new SUV models, for a total of 8 utilities in Ford showrooms by 2020. "Trucks and SUVs are going to fuel our growth and profitability," accounting for almost 90 percent of Ford's sales volume by 2020, said Jim Farley, president of global markets. Ford's F-series pickup trucks alone represent a $41 billion business – more than Coca-Cola or Nike – and its pickup business has grown steadily since introducing aluminum-bodied trucks in 2014. Now the focus is on expanding Ford's SUV lineup. Besides the compact EcoSport and revamped full-size Expedition that recently went on sale, Ford has a new Explorer and Escape in the pipeline, too. A high-performance Explorer ST is also coming. Beyond that, Ford is adding two new off-road utilities – the previously announced Bronco, which goes on sale in 2020, and a smaller off-road performance utility inspired by the success of Ford's fun-to-drive Raptor off-road pickup. The shape of the highly anticipated new Ford Bronco is unmistakable despite being cloaked in secrecy until it goes on sale in 2020. Most intriguing is a new four-door, Mustang-inspired, electric performance utility with a 300-mile battery range. Ford is adding hybrids across the entire lineup, including vehicles as diverse as the Mustang and F-150, both as a hedge against higher fuel prices and a way to meet stricter CO2 guidelines. By 2021, Ford said it will sell more hybrids in the U.S. than Toyota, the current hybrid leader. "We're moving past hybrids as a science project," said Farley. "It's become an accepted, reliable technology and we're going to make it as desirable as an EcoBoost engine," Consumers have fallen in love with the size and flexibility of SUVs, he said, "but someday, we expect fuel prices to go up." By giving them the choice of hybrid SUVs, Ford hopes it won't face a rapid shift back to small cars as it did during the last spike in fuel prices. Ford also plans to build trust with consumers by making advanced driver-assist technologies standard on most of its cars, trucks and SUVs by the end of 2019. It announced a package of standard features called Ford Co-Pilot 360 that includes automatic emergency braking for vehicles and pedestrians, blind spot monitoring, lane-keeping assist, backup camera and auto high-beams. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Ford is working to improve profitability by overhauling its product development process and cutting $4 billion in waste within five years. Joe Hinrichs, president of operations, provided more context to that effort. The company is streamlining its product development efforts to create all future vehicles off one of five new engineering architectures and reducing the time from sketch to showroom by about 20 percent. In certain cases, where a global vehicle design doesn't work across all markets, it will form partnerships or alliances. One example is its joint venture with China's Zotye Auto, which will develop small electric vehicles for that market, allowing Ford to focus on larger EV architectures for the U.S. and Europe. In its factories, Ford is using augmented and virtual reality to simulate new assembly processes, reducing plant changeover time by 25 percent, which adds an average $50 million per plant to the company's bottom line, and reducing tooling cost by up to 20 percent on each new vehicle program. ">A new off-road utility is one of several new SUVs coming to Ford's lineup Any time an automaker's future is in question, the company typically pulls back the curtain on shiny new products to reassure dealers, analysts and the media that it's not lost in the wilderness. That's exactly what Ford Motor did Thursday after a wave of management turnover in recent months that has left the impression that Ford is behind competitors – auto industry rivals and tech newcomers, too -- when it comes to mapping the future of transportation. Chief Executive Jim Hackett, in the job for just 10 months, has come under criticism for not laying out details of his plan to cut costs and improve profitability while simultaneously navigating the disruptive changes sweeping across the industry. On Thursday, Hackett and his executive team put more meat on the bones of that transformation, outlining a broad revamp of its truck and SUV lineup over the next few years, including new hybrid powertrains for virtually every vehicle in its lineup. By 2020, Ford said it will have the freshest lineup of vehicles in the industry, with an average age of 3.3 years, down from almost 6 years today. Among them will be four new SUV models, for a total of 8 utilities in Ford showrooms by 2020. "Trucks and SUVs are going to fuel our growth and profitability," accounting for almost 90 percent of Ford's sales volume by 2020, said Jim Farley, president of global markets. Ford's F-series pickup trucks alone represent a $41 billion business – more than Coca-Cola or Nike – and its pickup business has grown steadily since introducing aluminum-bodied trucks in 2014. Now the focus is on expanding Ford's SUV lineup. Besides the compact EcoSport and revamped full-size Expedition that recently went on sale, Ford has a new Explorer and Escape in the pipeline, too. A high-performance Explorer ST is also coming. Beyond that, Ford is adding two new off-road utilities – the previously announced Bronco, which goes on sale in 2020, and a smaller off-road performance utility inspired by the success of Ford's fun-to-drive Raptor off-road pickup. The shape of the highly anticipated new Ford Bronco is unmistakable despite being cloaked in secrecy until it goes on sale in 2020. Most intriguing is a new four-door, Mustang-inspired, electric performance utility with a 300-mile battery range. Ford is adding hybrids across the entire lineup, including vehicles as diverse as the Mustang and F-150, both as a hedge against higher fuel prices and a way to meet stricter CO2 guidelines. By 2021, Ford said it will sell more hybrids in the U.S. than Toyota, the current hybrid leader. "We're moving past hybrids as a science project," said Farley. "It's become an accepted, reliable technology and we're going to make it as desirable as an EcoBoost engine," Consumers have fallen in love with the size and flexibility of SUVs, he said, "but someday, we expect fuel prices to go up." By giving them the choice of hybrid SUVs, Ford hopes it won't face a rapid shift back to small cars as it did during the last spike in fuel prices. Ford also plans to build trust with consumers by making advanced driver-assist technologies standard on most of its cars, trucks and SUVs by the end of 2019. It announced a package of standard features called Ford Co-Pilot 360 that includes automatic emergency braking for vehicles and pedestrians, blind spot monitoring, lane-keeping assist, backup camera and auto high-beams. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Ford is working to improve profitability by overhauling its product development process and cutting $4 billion in waste within five years. Joe Hinrichs, president of operations, provided more context to that effort. The company is streamlining its product development efforts to create all future vehicles off one of five new engineering architectures and reducing the time from sketch to showroom by about 20 percent. In certain cases, where a global vehicle design doesn't work across all markets, it will form partnerships or alliances. One example is its joint venture with China's Zotye Auto, which will develop small electric vehicles for that market, allowing Ford to focus on larger EV architectures for the U.S. and Europe. In its factories, Ford is using augmented and virtual reality to simulate new assembly processes, reducing plant changeover time by 25 percent, which adds an average $50 million per plant to the company's bottom line, and reducing tooling cost by up to 20 percent on each new vehicle program. |
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