Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for a vehicle with a drift mode feature, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on September 17th, 2020, published on March 17th, 2022, and assigned serial number 0080837.
The Ford Authority Take
The last time a Blue Oval product came equipped with drift mode, it was the Ford Focus RS, a feature that looked like a ton of fun in practice but didn’t exactly impress some industry execs. In that application, drift mode changes up the behavior of the steering, dampers, stability control, and a few other settings, including the front and rear torque distribution, while stability control remains off right up until yaw sensors detect that the driver has lost control of the car. Ford actually came up with the idea of adding drift mode to the Focus RS by accident, after it discovered the hot hatch’s sideways-friendly nature, interestingly enough.
This new Ford patent for a vehicle with drift mode changes things up a bit by decoupling the drive wheels from the actuator, engaging the brakes to lock up the drive wheels, placing the actuator in speed control, and sending torque to the actuator at levels based on the vehicle’s actual speed and targeted speed.
What’s particularly interesting about this Ford patent – aside from the fact that it shows the automaker is considering employing drift mode in a future product(s) – is the fact that it also hints that this feature could be used in both EVs and ICE-powered vehicles. Given how vested the automaker is in electric vehicles, it wouldn’t at all be surprising to see something like this wind up in a vehicle like the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT or another future performance-oriented EV.
We’ll have more on this and all Ford patents soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford trademark news, Ford business news, and non-stop Ford news coverage.
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