Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for a deployable pillar mounted table that may be used in future Ford vehicles, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on April 20th, 2023, published on October 24th, 2024, and assigned serial number 0351498.
The Ford Authority Take
In recent months, Ford has filed a rather large number of patents outlining different ways it may one day incorporate folding tables in its future vehicles. That list includes ideas for console table assemblies, a steering wheel that can lay flat and double as a table, a deployable work table, and a modular table assembly, to name just a few. Now, this freshly published patent keeps that trend going by adding an idea for a deployable pillar mounted table that may be used in future Ford vehicles, too.
In its constant quest to figure out ways to make its future models more suitable to serve as mobile workspaces, this particular idea centers around adding a table inside of a vehicle, which is nothing new, but in this case, that table would be present in the rear passenger portion of a vehicle such as a van. When not in use, the table would be folded up flat against some sort of pillar, at which point it wouldn’t take up any space.
However, when the table is needed, one could simply fold it out of that stored position and use it for all sorts of purposes – whether that be as a place to set a book or laptop, or even a drink or a meal. That table could even be enlarged and extended outward in multiple directions if a larger surface is needed, which could certainly come in handy. Given Ford’s current obsession with making vehicles more like mobile offices – whether they be autonomous or not – it stands to reason that an idea like this could wind up making it into a production vehicle very soon.
Comment
Really ? Ford, get a grip … get the Transt Courier work van and wagon in the US for sale. We were promised this van over a year ago, then again about two months ago. It is doing rather well in the wagon variants in Europe sell for about $25K in US dollars. How about 10% of the effort wasted on things in the article an more SUV madness and get us some common sense vehicles we actually need, an importantly can afford. We about to buy two new vehicles, and currently isn’t in the running, you lost three customers … two to Toyota, one to GM.