Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for a vehicle window control system, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on August 1st, 2019, published on February 7th, 2023, and assigned serial number 11572731.
The Ford Authority Take
Ford has filed several window-related patents in recent months, including one for an enhanced anti-fogging window system, a heated side window system, an automatic window breaking apparatus, and an automatic window control system. Now, this new Ford patent keeps that trend going by introducing an idea for a vehicle window control system.
The point of this Ford patent is to create a system that could be capable of predicting environmental conditions at locations where a vehicle might be traveling – whether that be rain, dust, pollen, or any other type of potential event – and then automatically close the windows to prevent it from entering the cabin, if needed.
Since most new vehicles are already equipped with all sorts of sensors, such an idea isn’t terribly far-fetched nor presumably difficult to implement – rather, the tricky part here is detecting weather events before they happen. While Ford could simply create a system that would close the windows when it detects rain, dust, or pollen, the concept here is to determine when the vehicle is within a certain distance of those events, and then close the window preemptively.
To do this, the vehicle would receive map and weather data from remote computers, along with data collected from sensors on the actual vehicle itself. It’s an interesting idea for sure – albeit one that may not be totally necessary – but it’s yet another example of a convenience feature that may one day handle a small task that we currently do ourselves.
We’ll have more on this and all Ford patents soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford patent news, Ford business news, and comprehensive Ford news coverage.
Comments
Holy cow. The race to max complexity.
Another useless patent filed by Ford’s overstaffed team.
More things we the customer are NOT asking for. Increase production, increase quality and decrease the price. Crap like this only adds to the bottom line. Ford needs to focus on what customers are asking for, throttle down the EV builds and develop vehicles that people really need and want
Two billion loss last year we will see what Farley’s magic plan will be real soon.
As others have stated, more tech nobody asked for. Resulting in overly complex systems that require expensive repairs if they fail. Larger upfront consumer costs for tech we don’t need, which likely be forced on buyers in a package that will be thousands of dollars more.
Automakers need to stop thinking like a tech company. We don’t need to keep reinventing smarter technology into vehicles. Build quality, keep costs and consumer price down.
What are the poor folks going to do 15 years from now with all this crap when it breaks? Hoping I’m not one of them by then. You know this will turn into – you can’t get the window UP in an “environmental condition”.
And, here in California, if you leave your windows down and leave the car, you’ll come back to a housing challenged person living in it, or no car at all.
Everyone who commented already is correct. The sad thing is FORD will keep patenting features nobody wants because they think it’s attractive to the techy generation.