Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for a stowable pedal assembly that could be used in future Ford vehicles, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on April 22nd, 2022, published on October 26th, 2023, and assigned serial number 0339516.
The Ford Authority Take
As Ford remains heavily vested in developing autonomous driving technology for the future – when it envisions making and selling vehicles that are capable of driving themselves with no human interaction – the automaker has also filed a number of patents outlining how this might work, including one idea for a “disappearing” steering wheel and pedals system. At least in the interim and perhaps further down the road, fully autonomous vehicles figure to have controls present in the event that people want to drive themselves, and this newly filed patent is clear evidence of that, as it’s an idea for a stowable pedal assembly that may wind up being used in future Ford vehicles.
As one might imagine, the concept here is quite simple – the vehicle would be able to automatically stow or deploy the pedals depending on what mode it’s in. When the vehicle starts up, if it’s in autonomous mode, it would store the pedals away – giving the driver more leg room – or then deploy them if autonomous mode is switched off.
Considering the fact that many vehicles already come equipped with adjustable pedals, this idea seemingly wouldn’t take much to actually develop and install in vehicles. Coupled with the fact that we’ll seemingly be able to buy fully autonomous vehicles at some point in the future, and it stands a good chance of making it, too.
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 continuous Ford news coverage.
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