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Future Ford Pickups Could Get Deployable Work Table

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Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for a deployable work table that may be used in future Ford pickups, Ford Authority has learned.

The patent was filed on August 30th, 2022, published on September 10th, 2024, and assigned serial number 12083941.

The Ford Authority Take

After debuting the new Interior Work Surface feature in the 2021 Ford F-150, The Blue Oval proceeded to give the recently-redesigned Ford Transit Custom a trick steering wheel that doubles as a holder for things like laptops and tablets, too. It’s clear that the automaker is keen to transform its future vehicles into mobile offices in that regard, having also filed patents for ideas including a tray assembly similar to the one in the Transit Custom, a deployable desk, a deployable workstation, a modular table assembly, and a seat-mounted work surface, to name just a few. Now, this newly published patent shows off what could be a newly revised version of the Interior Work Surface designed for future Ford pickups.

This new idea for a deployable work table certainly looks like it’s designed to take the Interior Work Surface feature and make it a bit more functional in various ways. That could include the ability to pivot from side to side rather than just folding in one direction, as we can see in these drawings, which is enabled by a series of pivot pins placed in the table and base.

Additionally, there would be a locking pin present to lock the table into place when it reaches that desired position, so that users wouldn’t have to worry about it moving around. The benefits here are obvious – users could have their laptops or other electronic devices – or even a meal – directly in front of them rather than having to reach over to the center console area, which would seemingly make it much more useful than the current Interior Work Surface.

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.

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Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.

View Comments

  • They should just focus on quality. Instead of dumb items, nobody needs. We have $5 clipboards.... and you can take those $5 clipboards and beat the crap out of them.

  • exactly. The target market for this is business owners/fleet vehicles...no one is swaying a 50k truck purchase based on the existence of a swing out work table.

    Meanwhile they are getting rid of unique differentiating features like the keyless entry keypad, can't design a decent set of wheels, and haven't bothered fixing their leaking panoramic roof design in 10 years.

  • That’s what happens when all of your resources go into EV’s, including loosing $5 Billion. If Ford concentrated on building Ford Tough trucks that were very dependable they would own the truck market!!

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