Jennifer Jolly's coolest gadgets from CES you'll actually see in your home this year. Ford CEO James Hackett smiles while getting ready for an interview next to a self-driving delivery vehicle at CES International (Photo: Jae C. Hong, AP) LAS VEGAS -- Ford CEO Jim Hackett offered an ambitious vision for the automaker's self-driving vehicle business strategy Tuesday, depicting a future that will be as much as about networks of cars and traffic signals as any particular models. Ford will build these networked systems, he said, as well as the vehicles on the streets of this "City of Tomorrow." "The car and the system will be talking to each other," Hackett said at the CES tech trade show going on here. "The car obviously is going to learn to drive itself, but the city's transportation grid will mutate around what the cars need."

Different people want different things from a relationship: unfailing kindness maybe, or someone tough, with a bit of an edge. Nobody, however, wants a partner who comes with lawsuits, a broken ethical compass, federal agents sniffing around the house, a work ethic that moves beyond crushing to something more sinister, and endless instability. As the ride-hailing outfit barrels into another week of horrifying headlines, with founder Travis Kalanick's CEO job in jeopardy, its short-term prospects appear bleak. The trouble has long-term implications, too. If Uber is to thrive in the future, Kalanick has said, it must master self-driving cars.