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2020 Ford Explorer is aimed at being a smarter, sportier family hauler

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2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder
2020 Ford Explorer
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The redesigned 2020 Ford Explorer isn’t the most exciting vehicle, but it is important. Buyers are ditching cars in droves, opting for crossovers and SUVs. So is Ford: The automaker plans to stop selling virtually all cars in the United States. At least Ford tried to make the 2020 Explorer, which debuts at the 2019 Detroit Auto Show and goes on sale this summer, into a more well-rounded vehicle.

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We’ve already gotten a glimpse of the new Explorer in the form of the 2020 Ford Police Interceptor Utility, an Explorer-based cop car. The Explorer is still a car-like crossover, which may upset purists looking for a return to the vehicle’s body-on-frame SUV roots. But the 2020 Explorer moves to a new rear-wheel drive platform that Ford claims will improve performance both on-road and off-road.

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Off-road capability wasn’t really a priority for the previous-generation Explorer, but Ford did try to bake some ruggedness into the new model. It probably won’t be a match for a Jeep Wrangler, but the 2020 Explorer does get the Terrain Management System from the Ranger and F-150 Raptor pickup trucks. This automatically adjusts different vehicle parameters, depending on the terrain.

The Explorer also gets sporty ST and efficiency-minded hybrid variants for the first time. The ST boasts 400 horsepower and a 143-mph top speed, according to Ford, but, given our experience with the Edge ST crossover, we’re keeping our expectations in check.

Ford will offer two engines in the base 2020 Explorer. A 2.3-liter twin-turbocharged four-cylinder that produces 300 hp and 310 pound-feet of torque is standard. An optional 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 makes 365 hp and 380 lb-ft, but only on 93-octane gasoline, according to Ford.

On the inside, the Explorer can be equipped with a 10.1-inch portrait touchscreen and a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. The infotainment system is Ford’s familiar Sync 3, with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Waze, and a built-in Wi-Fi hot spot that can handle up to 10 devices. A 980-watt, 14-speaker B&O audio system is also available.

The Explorer comes standard with Ford’s Co-Pilot360 suite of driver aids, including autonomous emergency braking, forward collision warning, blind spot monitoring, lane keep assist, a rearview camera, and automatic high beams. Optional features include adaptive cruise control (which can read road signs to determine the speed limit), Evasive Steering Assist (increases power-steering boost during emergency maneuvers) and Post-Impact Braking (automatically applies the brakes after a crash to prevent secondary collisions). An optional park-assist system can automatically parallel or perpendicular park the Explorer, Ford boasts.

Pricing for the 2020 Ford Explorer will be revealed closer to the model’s summer launch. In the meantime, the Explorer will share the Detroit stage with the Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang. At over 700 hp, it will be the most powerful production Mustang ever. We know which one we’d rather take home.

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Stephen Edelstein
Stephen Edelstein
Contributing Editor
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues
Tesla Cybercab at night

Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters. Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
"Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars," Reuters quoted Wu as saying. "Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business."
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon's claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit, Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”

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Audi halts vehicle deliveries to the U.S. as it mulls impact of tariffs
2021 Audi Q5

If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time.  The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.

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Waymo faces questions about its use of onboard cameras for AI training, ads targeting
Two people exit a Waymo taxi.

In an iconic scene from the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, on-the-run Agent John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, struggles to walk through a mall as he’s targeted by a multitude of personalized ads from the likes of Lexus, Guinness and American Express, everytime hidden detectors identify his eyes.
It was clearly meant as a warning about a not-so-desirable dystopian future.
Yet, 23 years later that future is at least partlially here in the online world and threatens to spread to other areas of daily life which are increasingly ‘connected’, such as the inside of cars. And the new testing grounds, according to online security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, might very well be automated-driving vehicles, such as Waymo’s robotaxis.
On X, Wong unveiled an unreleased version of Waymo’s privacy policy that suggests the California-based company is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including interior cameras, to train generative AI models and to offer targetted ads.
“Waymo may share data to improve and analyze its functionality and to tailor products, services, ads, and offers to your interests,” the Waymo’s unreleased privacy statement reads. “You can opt out of sharing your information with third parties, unless it’s necessary to the functioning of the service.”
Asked for comments about the unreleased app update, Waymo told The Verge that it contained “placeholder text that doesn’t accurately reflect the feature’s purpose”.
Waymo’s AI-models “are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads,” spokesperson Julia Ilina said.
Waymo’s robotaxis, which are operating on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, do contain onboard cameras that monitor riders. But Ilina says these are mainly used to train AI models for safety, finding lost items, check that in-car rules are followed, and to improve the service.
The new feature is still under development and offers riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection, Ilina says.
But as we all get used to ads targeting based on everything that’s somehow connected to the web, it seems a once-distant vision of the future may be just around the corner.

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