2014 Ford F150 on 2040-cars

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Ford increasing Super Duty production by 15 percent

Ford has announced a hefty $80 million investment in its Kentucky Truck Plant, which is responsible for building the F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550 versions of the Super Duty pickup. The influx of cash will add 350 jobs to the factory.
The investment is also good for a 15-percent increase in annual production thanks to retooling and other facility upgrades, which equates to an extra 55,000 units of production. Considering that Ford makes even more money off its Super Duty than it does on the hot-selling F-150, this could mean some serious coin to Ford's bottom line.
Hop below for the full press release from Ford on its latest investment.

Ford sued by Versata over alleged software trade secret theft

Automakers are routinely subject to intellectual property and patent disputes, whether over design similarities or pieces of tech. Ford is now facing a lawsuit for alleged IP theft over a piece of software from a company called Versata, and the business wants $1 billion from the Blue Oval for the violation. With such huge amount of money at stake, the legal situation is already getting complicated. According to The Detroit Free Press, Versata's software is designed to help automakers improve product development by making sure all of a car's countless components work together. The company and Ford had a contract for the system for many years, and they were negotiating an extension at the end of 2014. However, the deal fell through, and the Blue Oval ended the two business' arrangement. Making the legal situation especially tricky is that Ford developed and patented its own software for the same task. The automaker then filed a lawsuit in Michigan to have the court check whether the program violated Versata's IP, according to The Detroit Free Press. Later, the software company registered a lawsuit in Texas and alleged the Blue Oval stole proprietary code. Versata has asked for an injunction against Ford and restitution. "Ford's patented software does not use or infringe any Versata intellectual property and Versata has provided no basis for their claims against us," the automaker said in a statement to Autoblog. "We are confident that we will ultimately prevail in this case and we look forward to the opportunity to present our evidence at trial." With both sides in dispute, that leaves Ford pushing for a hearing in Michigan and Versata for Texas. According to The Detroit Free Press, it could be at least a year before a trial, if not longer. Of course in the meantime, the two sides could conceivably reach a settlement, and the whole issue would disappear.

NHTSA probing 2000-2003 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable models over throttle issue

A potential issue with the speed control cable collar has got the 2003-20003 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable under the spotlight of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. If the collar breaks it can cause the throttle to be stuck open.
The issue is limited to vehicles with the 3.0-liter V6 Duratec. There are just 50 complaints so far out of 310,000 cars, but the NHTSA has begun an investigation into whether a recall should be issued.