Boone Pickens' son Thomas and Christian Melhado, of the Ford family--invited Walker to a benefit for the Children's Storefront School, a private tuition-free elementary school in one of Harlem's most blighted areas.

FORBES: Renaissance Man

"The vehicles will cover thousands of kilometres in test drives and evaluations to gather valuable research data from every-day driving scenarios, " said Christian Ress, technical expert, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering.

ENGADGET: Road safety project simTD connects cars, infrastructure. Hopes to save lives, time

Yesterday on this program, we reported that Ford pulled ads for some of its car brands from gay magazines at about the same time that a conservative Christian organization called off its threatened boycott of Ford.

NPR: History of Boycotts