Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for a full seatback airbag system, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on April 7th, 2021, published on June 21st, 2022, and assigned serial number 11364870.
The Ford Authority Take
Ford has filed a host of airbag-related patents in recent months, including one for a seat bottom-mounted airbag system, a seat assembly with a pivotable armrest and airbag, a side airbag with adaptive positioning, a seat bottom mounted airbag that protects pets, an instrument panel mounted driver airbag, and a movable roof supported airbag system. Now, this new Ford patent continues that trend by introducing a design for a full seatback airbag system.
This Ford patent depicts a seat with two separate portions in the upper and lower part of the seatback which contain an airbag assembly that completely covers a vehicle’s occupants when activated. The patent specifically mentions the fact that autonomous vehicles will feature more minimalistic interiors, and that such a system could be useful as seats are expected to be able to pivot around in those self-driving models. Placing a full airbag system in a seatback that provides total coverage for occupants is one way to compensate for that.
That’s precisely what this patent aims to do, and in that case, it makes a ton of sense. For years now, we’ve been told that autonomous vehicles of the future will be more like mobile living rooms than the automobiles we’re used to driving today, which necessitates a little out of the box thinking in terms of how to provide the same levels of protection for occupants in a vehicle that’s nothing like what we’re familiar with currently.
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