Future Ford Vehicles Could Get Adaptive Interior Controls

Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for adaptive interior controls that may be used in future Ford vehicles, Ford Authority has learned.

The patent was filed on December 9^th, 2022, published on June 13^th, 2024, and assigned serial number 0190246.

The Ford Authority Take

Earlier this year, Ford filed a patent for an adaptive off-road feature control model that aims to help owners of future Ford SUVs cover various surfaces and obstacles that might otherwise prove challenging for novices or beginners. Then, earlier this week, the automaker filed a patent for a haptic feedback system that could obtain information about road conditions and then adjust various parameters related to the haptic device based on that input. Now, this newly published patent presents to us yet another, similar idea that may wind up being used in future Ford vehicles, too.

That idea is for adaptive interior controls that would be capable of changing responsiveness based on changing driving behaviors. With many new vehicles ditching physical controls for digital ones, it means that drivers are often having to look away from the road to find the control they’re looking for, which can obviously be dangerous – particularly when a lot of digital controls are bunched together on a screen.

Thus, this patent aims to solve that by collecting vehicle data and using it to determine what controls a user may need to access at any given time. From there, the system would display those controls in a manner that’s easy to see and access, which should eliminate the frustration some feel when having to search on a screen full of controls, or worse – having to navigate through multiple menus to find them.

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