Bill Ford, executive chairman, called Poling an "extraordinary leader" who had a "profound impact" on both Ford and those he worked with.

Poling led Ford, based in Dearborn, Mich., as chairman and chief executive from 1990 until his retirement at the end of 1993.

But it said it "remains committed" to the social network as part of "an aggressive content strategy with all our products and brands."

Meanwhile, Ford said it would "accelerate" ad spending on Facebook in conjunction with the content it's producing for the network.

GM posted first-quarter net income of $1 billion.

Buffett drives a GM-made Cadillac DTS sedan. Berkshire is not invested in Ford or Chrysler, which is majority owned by Fiat.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that factory production rose 0.6 percent in April, erasing a 0.5 percent decline in March.

Half of the April increase reflected a 3.9 percent jump in the production of motor vehicles and parts, AP said. That's the fifth consecutive gain at auto plants and the biggest rise since January.

Overall industrial production increased 1.1 percent in April.

In addition, using a cellphone under age 18 while driving carries a 30-day license suspension and $175 in license restoration and court fees for a first offense, according to the state DMV.

Kenneth Dorsey, 44, was training for a marathon on March 24 when he was fatally struck by the SUV the girl was driving, according to his father, Leo Dorsey.

They're still too worried about their jobs and the economy, it said.

And the bulk of road trippers, experts say, will take shorter trips and reduce food and entertainment spending to conserve cash.

Gas was averaging around $3.85 per gallon when AAA spoke with 315 would-be travelers from April 20 to 24.

He was 89 and had packed a great deal of adventure into his life. He was born in East Texas and initially got into the dump truck and poultry business.

But he started racing when his chicken business failed and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with teammate Ray Salvadori in 1959. A heart condition force off the track into designing sports cars. He underwent a heart transplant in 1990 and was one of the longest-living recipients of a heart.

In the 1960s, Lee Iacocca persuaded him to create a powerful Ford Mustang to compete with Chevrolet's Corvette. The Shelby Mustang was the result.

He moved to Africa in the 1970s to operate a safari company. He returned in the 1980s to join Iacocca who had moved to Chrysler and where he developed the Viper sports car.

Most recently, he developed the 662 horsepower 1913 Shelby Mustang GT500, the most powerful production V-8 engine in the world with a top speed of more than 200 miles per hour.

It cited the cost of bringing its Model S electric sedan to market.

At the same time, Tesla raised its 2012 revenue target to between $560 million and $600 million because it expects to deliver the new Model S earlier than planned.

It has said ninety percent of its revenue this year will come from the sedan.

Former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told the EVS26 convention in Los Angeles that selling EVs with an "it's good for you" or global warming message will politicize the process, thereby turning away half of the vehicles' potential customers.

He said "about 5 percent" of Americans might buy an electric car for altruistic reasons - not enough to make the vehicles economically viable, Automotive News said.

Lutz suggested EVs should be marketed on the basis of "energy security and the efficiency of the American transportation system."

The F-Type is Jaguar's first two-seater sports car after four decades of focusing on luxury sedans. It will be unveiled in September, is due on dealers' lots next April and Jaguar sees it lining up against such German automakers as Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.

India's Tata Motors, which acquired Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford in 2008, plans to invest $12 billion over five years to win a bigger slice of the upscale market.

The new model will come with a 3-liter supercharged V6 engine tuned to either 335 or 375 horsepower with a top speed of 155 miles per hour. A later model will be armed with a 5-liter V8.

Self-driving vehicle technology works like auto-pilot to guide a car (a modified Prius) with little or no intervention from a human operator.

Laser radar mounted on the roof and in the grill detects pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles, create a virtual buffer zone around the obstacles that the car then avoids.

And it decreases dramatically when there's an adult looking on.

AAA said most previous studies were more than a decade old and don't reflect changes in state driving laws. Every state has since adopted a "graduated licensing" law that restrict teens from driving with any passengers under age 21, or just one young passenger, and bar nighttime driving.

The study was based on an examination of government data on teen crashes from 2007 to 2010.

Forty-seven percent reported that they had made a phone call without a headset while behind the wheel, even though nearly two-thirds 63 percent acknowledged that the behavior was perilous.

In his book "ReThinking a Lot," he claims we are adrift in a "sea of asphalt" and calls on architects to design car parks which are more aesthetically pleasing and have less environmental impact.

Consider there are an estimated 600 million cars in the world, a figure that's rapidly growing, especially in China and other "emerging markets".

Indeed, in the US, surface car parks take up land roughly about the size of Puerto Rico, or 3,459 square miles, according to conservative estimates. Ben-Joseph thinks the true figure could be up to 4,700 sq miles.

When asked if they would pay more for a hybrid vehicle, 55 percent said they would be willing to pay $1,000 more for a hybrid, 42 percent said they would pay $500 - $2,000 extra, but 38 percent said hybrids were not worth the extra cost.