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The 2019 Ford Focus Active crossover.Handout / Ford Ford has a history of taking on the greats of the automotive world, but lately its been taking road car brands to task.First, Ford set its sights on the Jeep Gladiator and Wrangler market with its forthcoming Bronco and (rumoured) Bronco pickup, and now its targeting Subarus Outback.Weve long known Ford would be killing off most of its car lineup, leaving only the Mustang, F-Series truck and a few select crossovers, but were now learning the automaker also wants to merge three of its vehicles into a single competitor aimed at the Subaru Outback.According to Autocar, in Europe, the yet-to-be-named crossover will replace the Mondeo (Fusion), S-Max and the Galaxy, and will see Ford exit the minivan market as well as the large hatchback segment there. Underneath the new vehicle will be Fords A2 platform which currently underpins the Focus, an architecture thatll eventually be stretched to fit everything from the Fiesta to the Ford Edge SUV.The Subaru Outback isnt exactly a best-seller in Europe, but in North America, the off-road-capable wagon sells about 200,000 units annually, so its not hard to see why Ford would want part of that action. This new rumoured crossover will be sold globally, after all.Fords take on the ute will be powered by a gasoline 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo, connected to a 48-volt hybrid system. There will also be a 6d-compliant diesel option in Europe even less pollutant than a mild hybrid gasoline
Origin: Ford reportedly wants to build a Subaru Outback competitor

Elon Musk during his presentation at the Tesla Powerpack Launch Event at Hornsdale Wind Farm on September 29, 2017 in Adelaide, Australia. Tesla and Apple both suspect they were betrayed by driverless technology engineers who defected to the same Chinese startup.So, Tesla is now asking for Apples help in a lawsuit in which the electric carmaker accused an engineer who worked on its Autopilot program of taking thousands of highly confidential files when he went to work for XMotors.ai, the U.S. research arm of Guangzhou-based Xpeng.Along with typical information demands in the early fact-finding phase of the lawsuit that are spelled out in a court filing last week Tesla wants to see the engineers emails and have a forensic analysis conducted on his electronic devices the company founded by Elon Musk disclosed that it has also served the iPhone maker with a subpoena.The documents Tesla seeks from Apple arent specified in the filing, but the thinking may be that while the Silicon Valley titans are rivals in the ultra-hot self-driving space, they share a common enemy in Xpeng.Last July, prosecutors charged a hardware engineer in Apples autonomous vehicle-development team with downloading proprietary files as he prepared to leave the company and start work for the for Chinese company. The engineer has pleaded not guilty.Apple didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.The former Tesla engineer, Guangzhi Cao, acknowledged in a court filing that he downloaded copies of Teslas Autopilot-related source code to his personal iCloud account, but denies any wrongdoing. Cao has done precisely nothing with Teslas IP, having diligently and earnestly tried to scrub all of Teslas source code from his personal devices and volunteered to provide the company with complete forensic copies of any devices it wished to inspect, his lawyers wrote.Xpeng which hasnt been accused of wrongdoing by Apple or Tesla has said it plays by the rules and has denied having any part in the engineers alleged misconduct. The company has said that when it was notified in June 2018 that U.S. authorities were investigating the Apple engineer, his computer and office equipment were secured and he was denied access to his work and subsequently fired.Xpeng, which is backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Foxconn Technology Group, is among the startups in China striving to reshape the auto industry as the worlds biggest market promotes new-energy vehicles in an effort to clean its air and cut its reliance on oil
Origin: Tesla asks Apple to help nab alleged data thief working for Chinese competitor