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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gets Ford with 1-millionth Sync system

It's taken a little more than two years for Ford to build 1 million vehicles with the Sync entertainment and communications system, and the automaker marked the milestone by having Ford CEO Alan Mulally deliver a Ford Fusion hybrid with the 1-millionth system to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Ford also let Mulally, a former Boeing executive, make a return visit to Seattle, home to the Microsoft headquarters. Microsoft supplies the software that is the heart of the Sync system.

One Lap of the Web: Remembering the dearly departed

-- With news that Toyota is leaving the great state of California for the greater (by landmass, anyway; your own opinion may vary) state of Texas, it's worth reminding ourselves that Toyota in America started as one lonely building on 6000 Hollywood Blvd., having taken over a former Rambler dealership. (The site is still a successful Toyota dealership.) That first year of sales in 1958 saw 287 Toyopet Crowns and one Land Cruiser sold -- more as curiosities than as practical transportation, we'd wager. -- At any rate, Toyota's move from California to Texas is moving from "one of the most eco-friendly states in the union," according to Ward's Auto, "to the U.S.’s equivalent of China." -- Ten years ago today, the last Oldsmobile rolled off the line at Lansing Car Assembly.

BMW Megacity Vehicle (MCV)

BMW's Project i – an internal codename for a possible sub-brand dedicated to green urban driving – has been in the works for some time. The Vision EfficientDynamics concept, unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Show, showcased some of the lightweight technological advances and design thinking behind the forthcoming zero-emission cars. Recently the firm held a Project i event, where it released teaser sketches of the first vehicle to result from the project, the Megacity Vehicle (MCV) – a four-seater electric car with a rear-mounted engine and rear wheel drive.