Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for an undesirable vehicle operations system, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on March 24th, 2021, published on September 29th, 2022, and assigned serial number 0306076.
The Ford Authority Take
Recently, Ford has filed a number of patents related to autonomous driving and hybrid/electric vehicles, including one for dynamic control of hybrid vehicle modes, while the automaker also launched a geofencing trial program in Europe earlier this year that aims to improve safety by automatically slowing vehicles down in areas where the speed limit drops. Now, this new Ford patent builds upon those actions by introducing ideas for ways to avoid undesirable vehicle operations within confined spaces.
One of the examples given in the Ford patent of how this might work pertains to hybrid vehicles – when such a vehicle is parked inside a garage or any other sort of confined space, it’s obviously best to utilize its electric motor instead of the ICE powerplant, as the latter may produce harmful emissions. As such, this type of system could determine when a vehicle is located within a confined space and disable the internal combustion powerplant, using the electric motor to maneuver the vehicle out of the space before switching it on.
This technology would utilize geofencing as well, an already established technology that is essentially just a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. Given the fact that people are still harmed or even killed by fumes emitted by vehicles parked in confined spaces like garages on a fairly regular basis, such an idea makes quite a bit of sense, at least in hybrid vehicles where electric power is an option.
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.
No Comments yet