Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for track and off-road monitoring systems that may be used in future Ford EVs, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on November 17th, 2021, published on October 15th, 2024, and assigned serial number 12115880.
The Ford Authority Take
Thus far, we haven’t seen too many off-road-focused all-electric vehicles coming from any manufacturer – including Ford – which is likely due to the fact that things like big, heavy, beefy tires and other accessories have a big time negative impact on range. However, the Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally is already on sale, and the F-150 Lightning Switchgear EV demonstrator showed us what a Raptor version of that pickup might look like, not to mention the beastly F-150 Lightning SuperTruck that debuted a while after. Last November, Ford filed to trademark “Lightstream” as a possible name for a future off-road-focused EV, and now, it has published a patent for track and off-road monitoring systems that may be used in future Ford EVs, too.
With off-road and on-road performance-focused vehicles becoming more and more popular, Ford envisions a future in which both will be commonly available in all-electric guise as well, which is the driving force behind this patent. Trouble is, there are challenges associated with both – off the pavement, they can be difficult to charge in remote areas, and on race tracks, range can limit the number of laps one can complete as well. Thus, Ford proposes using an adaptive prediction system capable of determining just how far one can travel under these special types of conditions.
The system would do this by analyzing a large amount of data – such as a driver’s performance requirements, the surface they’re driving on, previous energy consumption, and several other goal parameters. Thus, future EV owners could be presented with more accurate data in terms of how far they can travel on a single charge, which could prove useful in a number of settings.
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