Future Ford Vehicles Could Get Adaptive Upfitter Switches

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

The patent was filed on February 24^th, 2021, published on October 8^th, 2024, and assigned serial number 12019956.

The Ford Authority Take

With off-road focused vehicles exploding in popularity over the past few years, many new Ford models have gained upfitter switches, which enable owners to more easily power and control things like additional exterior lighting and other aftermarket goodies. It’s far easier to utilize these existing switches than installing them oneself, not to mention having to run and hide wires inside of a vehicle, too. Thus, this newly published patent outlining an idea for adaptive upfitter switches seems like an interesting idea that may one day come to fruition in future Ford vehicles.

Recently, Ford has published patents for ideas such as a system that could help provide more power for outlets installed in hybrid vehicles, a new Pro Power interface, and an advanced accessory interface, all of which are geared toward different ways to power accessories using vehicles. Now, this new patent suggests making upfitter switches smarter as well, and proposes an idea for ways to make switches serve more than one purpose, as is currently the case.

Rather than simply turning something like a light bar on and off, future upfitters switches could perform at least one additional function if this patent becomes a reality, with an on-board computer determining which function a user may want to enable at any given time. Users would be able to customize these functions as well, giving them a bit more control over that process. The main purpose of such an idea is to give users more control over their accessories without having to add more switches, which can quickly make things a bit more confusing – and those controls harder to find and activate or deactivate, too.