A Georgia jury sided against Ford in a wrongful death case and awarded $1.7 billion to the children of a couple killed in a pickup truck crash in 2014.

The Associated Press reported that in April 2014, Melvin and Voncile Hill were killed when they were involved in a rollover crash in their 2002 Ford F-250.

The roof collapsed after the rollover, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The couple's children, Kim and Adam Hill, filed the lawsuit against the automaker for what their attorneys called dangerously weak roofs, the news outlets reported.

During the trial, the Associated Press reported that the Hills' lawyers presented evidence of nearly 80 similar rollover wrecks that involved someone was injured or killed after the truck roofs collapsed.

A spokesperson for the automaker told The Associated Press they plan to appeal the verdict.

“While our sympathies go out to the Hill family, we do not believe the verdict is supported by the evidence, and we plan to appeal,” the automaker said in a statement Sunday to The Associated Press.

The verdict is believed to be the biggest in state history, the newspaper reported.

Ford is recalling nearly 400,000 vehicles because their 360-degree camera may not work properly.

The recall involves 2020-2023 Explorers, Lincoln Aviators and 2020-2022 Lincoln Corsairs.

Ford says the video output on the camera may fail, preventing the rearview camera image from displaying.

"Loss of the rearview camera image can reduce the driver's rear visibility, increasing the risk of a crash," Ford notes.

The automaker says it's aware of 17 reported minor accidents that may be related to the faulty video output, which causes a blue screen. No injuries have been reported.

Owners should receive letters in February to take their vehicles in to be serviced. Dealers will update the necessary software for free, Ford states.

DETROIT —

All of Ford Motor Co.'s current and future electric vehicles will have access to about 12,000 Tesla Supercharger stations in the U.S. and Canada starting next spring.

Video above: In February, the Biden-Harris Administration announced thousands of Tesla's charging stations would eventually open to other vehicles

Ford CEO Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the agreement Thursday during a "Twitter Spaces" audio chat.

"We think this is a huge move for our industry and for all electric customers," Farley said.

Musk said he didn't want Tesla's network to be a "walled garden" and that he wants to use it to support sustainable transportation.

"It is our intent to do everything possible to support Ford and have Ford be on an equal footing at Tesla Superchargers," Musk said.

Farley said there will be a cost to Ford owners, perhaps a monthly subscription, but he didn't give specifics. Details of any financial arrangement between Ford and Tesla were not announced.

At first, Ford's current electric vehicles will need an adapter to hook into the Tesla stations, which have their own connector. But Ford will switch to Tesla's North American Charging Standard connector with its second-generation EVs starting in 2025, Farley said.

Ford said Tesla's connector is smaller and lighter than those in use by other automakers.

Farley said Tesla's Superchargers have great locations.

"We love the locations. We love the reliability," he said. They will join Ford's own Blue Oval charging network which has about 10,000 fast-charging stations, he said.

Ford EV owners will be able to access the Tesla chargers seamlessly with Ford's app, Musk said.

Tesla has about 17,000 Supercharger stations in the U.S. There are about 54,000 public charging stations in the U.S., according to the Department of Energy, but many charge much more slowly than the Tesla stations.

The Ford-Tesla deal is separate from a plan to open part of Tesla's charging network to all EVs.

The White House announced in February that at least 7,500 chargers from Tesla's Supercharger and Destination Charger network would be available to non-Tesla electric vehicles by the end of 2024.

Video below: Tesla charging ports will soon be usable by other electric vehicles

The chat between Musk, who last fall bought Twitter for $44 billion, and Farley came off without the embarrassing technical glitches that plagued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' announcement Wednesday that he was running for president.

With Musk, DeSantis released the news that he would seek the Republican nomination, but the chat was delayed by glitches for nearly a half hour. Musk blamed it on straining of servers because so many were trying to listen in.

The Farley-Musk chat had a much smaller audience, than DeSantis, about 18,000 listeners at the start.

The number on the DeSantis chat topped out at 420,000, far from the millions who have watched televised presidential announcements. After the problems were fixed, the audience remained under 500,000.

Two leaders in motor vehicle safety testing said Thursday that they will rate the driver monitoring systems that are supposed to help make technologies like Tesla's Autopilot safe.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Consumer Reports are pushing for safeguards that go further than what the auto industry and regulators currently ask of the new technologies.

Driver-assist technologies like Autopilot, GM's Super Cruise and Ford BlueCruise, which combine active cruise control with lane-keeping assist features, have become increasingly common on vehicles in recent years. They can often steer cars in their lane, keep up with traffic and sometimes respond to traffic signs and signals. The technology can make driving more pleasant, but they also have limitations like contributing to distracted driving, which can turn deadly. New risks emerge once a task is automated, and they may offset dangers that the automation removed.

"There is no evidence that [driver-assist systems] make driving safer," IIHS President David Harkey said in a statement. "In fact, the opposite may be the case if systems lack adequate safeguards."

Research has shown drivers are more distracted while using Tesla Autopilot. Tesla has published data showing its crash rate is lower when its drivers are using Autopilot. However, critics caution that driver-assist systems like Autopilot are more likely to be used on highways where crash rates are already much lower, and a comparison of highway driving to all other types, including urban environments, is not valid.

Drivers need to be alert and prepared to take full control of their vehicle at any moment when using systems like Autopilot. So automakers have introduced driver monitoring systems to help keep people focused on the road. But there are no regulations for those systems, leaving consumers with a hodgepodge of varying and unverified claims around capability and safety.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, asked to comment on Thursday's news, said it was "actively researching driver monitoring technologies to establish benchmarks and collect data about driver behavior that may be used to inform potential future actions."

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents nearly all the largest automakers except Tesla, released principles for driver-assist systems last April. The principles call for automakers to consider using a camera to monitor drivers, but they aren't required.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety will only give a "good" rating to systems that make sure the driver's eyes are on the road, and their hands are either on the wheel or ready to grab it at any time. It said that none of the driver-monitoring systems in vehicles today meet its pending criteria. (It's yet to finalize its rating system.)

The organization also said that for systems to get a good rating drivers will need to receive multiple alerts if they look away from the road or have gone too long without steering the vehicle. It also says that drivers should confirm or initiate any lane changes, which is not something all automakers require. Tesla's "full self-driving" beta includes automated lane changes, and Autopilot drivers can change a default setting so they don't have to confirm automated lane changes.

The driver-monitoring systems from Ford and General Motors use an in-car camera to monitor drivers and make sure they're watching the road. But the systems don't meet IIHS standards because they fail to ensure that a driver isn't holding something like a cellphone in one hand and coffee in another, which may make grabbing the wheel at a moment's notice challenging.

Ford did not respond to a request for comment. GM declined to comment on monitoring a driver's hand position.

Tesla measures torque on the steering wheel to ensure that drivers are engaged while using Autopilot. Its vehicles also sometimes sound audible alerts to keep drivers engaged. Tesla isn't broadly using its in-car cameras to monitor drivers but has begun to do so with drivers using the beta version of its "full self-driving" technology, which only a small percentage of its owners have access to.

Consumer Reports said it will reward automakers in its ratings whose driver-monitoring systems effectively encourage safe driving. It's tested the systems from five automakers: BMW, Ford, GM, Subaru and Tesla.

But it will only give extra points to Ford and GM when it releases it 2022 top picks.

"Cruise and now Ford's BlueCruise both have the right combination of helping drivers enjoy the convenience of automation while verifying that they're keeping their eyes on the road," Jake Fisher, senior director of Consumer Report's auto test center, said in a statement.

Starting in 2024, Consumer Reports will penalize vehicles that lack adequate driver-monitoring systems. It criticized Tesla and BMW because their driver-assist systems could be active when the in-car camera was covered. Subaru risks losing points because the camera in its driver-monitoring system can be turned off.

Consumer Reports said it may penalize automakers for privacy issues. Most automakers say they don't transmit in-cabin data or video from an in-car camera outside the vehicle, but Tesla leaves the possibility open. If there's a crash and a driver enables data sharing the car will share image and video with Tesla, according to the Model 3 owner's manual.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

DETROIT (AP) — The global shortage of computer chips is getting worse, forcing automakers to temporarily close factories including those that build popular pickup trucks.

General Motors announced Thursday that it would pause production at eight North American plants during the next two weeks, including two that make the company's top-selling Chevrolet Silverado pickup.

According to the Associated Press, starting Monday, GM will close its plants in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Silao, Mexico, for a week, a plant in Wentzville, Missouri, for two weeks, and other plants could be closed for two or more weeks.

Ford will stop making pickups at its Kansas City Assembly Plant for the next two weeks.

Shifts will be cut at two more truck plants in Dearborn, Michigan, and Louisville, Kentucky.

Industry analysts say the delta variant of the novel coronavirus has hit employees at chip factories in southeast Asia hard, forcing some plants to close.

That's worsened a chip shortage that was starting to improve earlier in the summer.

Ford and GM aren't the only car makers having to shut down plants due to the chip shortage.

Stellantis closed a plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan this week and its plants in Belvidere, Illinois and Windsor, Ontario will be closed for two weeks.

Nissan, which shutdown its plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, for two weeks until Aug. 30, has now pushed the closure back to four weeks, until Sept. 13.

Ford Motor Company is recalling more than 150,000 vehicles for safety concerns related to airbags after losing track of some of the "obsolete" pieces.

In a notice posted this week, the company says some vehicles “may have had obsolete Takata service parts installed in collision and theft repairs after the Takata recall was completed.”

The company said a few dozen recalled pieces could not be located when the service part was purged, and they are recalling about 154,000 vehicles that may have had them installed during a repair.

“Following extensive investigation and tracing, Ford could not account for some of the obsolete Takata service parts, indicating they may have been installed on vehicles as part of collision or theft repairs,” the statement reads. They also said they were issuing the recall at the request of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

This recall includes about 153,000 Rangers from 2004 to 2006.

Another recall, also over concerns about obsolete Takata air bag parts, includes about 1,100 vehicles. These include certain Rangers, Mustangs, GTs, Fusions and Edges from 2004 to 2012.

More details and specific recalled vehicles can be found on Ford’s website.

Before the planes took to the sky at Sunday's Kansas City Air Show, a veteran got a special gift on the ground.Dustin Johns, a Marine sergeant who lost both his legs and two fingers in Afghanistan, is now the owner of this 2021 Ford Explorer courtesy of Wounded Warriors Family Support."We really wanted to do something that made a difference, and by granting this vehicle along with the modifications, he'll really be able to help his family be mobile and productive in society,” Kate McCauley, president of Wounded Warriors Family Support, said.This is the eighth car the organization has given away this year, and it will soon be outfitted with adaptive controls, so Johns, who lives in Lee's Summit, Missouri, can drive his young children around easier."It's definitely easier with hand controls,” Johns said. “Trying to get around and navigate, especially, if I can't wear my prosthetics or if I need to be in my chair for some reason, so having the hand controls is pretty important to me." Take a look at the video above for more.

CHEVIOT, Ohio —

A car came flying through a Cheviot neighborhood launching through a yard and hitting a house before coming to a stop in a front yard.

Neighbors are still talking about it and joined the homeowners pushing for a change to make their street safer.

They came together to call for action at Cheviot City Hall, but the meeting, which got heated at some points, left them feeling less than heard.

Alyssa and Will Bryant believe the woman who hit their house was going 60 miles per hour or faster.

"I had seen two headlights coming in my direction and then a really big, loud sound that almost sounded like a bomb," Alyssa Bryant said.

It was enough to nearly stop her heartbeat.

A Ford Taurus wagon slammed into her and her husband's home on Applegate Avenue in Cheviot Sunday night.

"Literally, 'Bo Duke'd it' up here and hit my column, took out my handrails, rode the front step actually and, then, ended up in the yard right next to the magnolia tree," Will Bryant said.

They found twisted iron railing ripped off the house and brick columns damaged.

Shattered glass was sprinkled like glitter.

The driver, Lacey Wurster, 35, from Cleves, is charged with Operating a Vehicle while Intoxicated and Operation without Reasonable Control, according to a citation filed by Cheviot police.

The Bryants said hours earlier, their 3-year-old son was playing in the area where Wurster crashed.

"We made his slide over here into a little water slide. So, we actually had it positioned right where this crater is," Alyssa Bryant said.

The husband and wife came to Cheviot City Hall on Tuesday, joined by neighbors pushing for new safety measures.

"I constantly hear cars screeching their tires and honking at each other because they've almost hit each other while they're speeding down my street," Alyssa Bryant said.

Several council members said speed bumps are expensive and a liability.

The mayor said 50 to 60 streets in Cheviot want speed humps, but added that they're hard on garbage and emergency vehicles.

That infuriated neighbors who worried their children could become the next emergency.

A councilwoman said they also slow down response times.

"I'm hoping that they are hoping to look into other options, getting, if it's not speed bumps or speed humps, getting some kind of other alternative that is not just a quick fix and won't be temporary," Alyssa Bryant said following the meeting.

The charged driver told WLWT she was having a seizure when the crash occurred and had only had one margarita that day.

She said the medication in her car was for her seizures and said she will not be driving.

Wurster also said she did not cause damage and that she is sorry for what has happened.

Cheviot's mayor said police will clearly run a radar sign on the street indicating the speed limit and the speed of the approaching car.

Neighbors said they still left feeling less than impressed with city leaders.

A streets and sidewalks committee will have a special meeting about the concerns on Applegate Avenue.

The public meeting is set for June 1, following the city council meeting.