Future Ford Vehicles Could Get Integrated Lug Wrench

Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for an integrated lug wrench that may be used in future Ford vehicles, Ford Authority has learned.

The patent was filed on May 23^rd, 2023, published on November 28^th, 2024, and assigned serial number 0391274.

The Ford Authority Take

Among its many published patents as of late, Ford has filed a couple revolving around ways that it could improve the ownership experience in a number of interesting ways. Those include an idea for an integrated rearview mirror tag hook that could be used for things like paying tolls or simply proving that we’re authorized to park in a certain area, as well as a tire monitoring system to monitor the condition of non-pneumatic tires, which don’t contain air pressure like traditional pneumatic rubber. Now, this newly published patent presents us with another interesting concept – this time, for an integrated lug wrench that may be used in future Ford vehicles.

The idea here is to incorporate a lug wrench directly into a vehicle’s wheel, which would make the act of removing said wheel and changing it out with a spare more convenient. When it isn’t needed – which would be most of the time, hopefully – that wrench would be neatly integrated into the wheel design itself, hidden and out of sight. But once one needs the lug wrench to remove a wheel’s lug nuts, they could simple take it off and use it in that manner.

This particular concept is obviously quite simple, but also, pretty interesting and possibly useful. Modern vehicles go to great lengths to hide things like the jack and lug wrench/tire iron in different places, and even though experiencing a flat tire isn’t something that most people face on a regular basis, trying to locate those items can oftentimes be frustrating and time consuming if they don’t know where they are beforehand. Of course, one would still have to use a jack to remove the wheel and tire, but perhaps Ford has something up its sleeve in that regard, too.