Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for a new kind of lighting system that may be used in future Ford vehicles, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on June 3rd, 2024, published on January 9th, 2025, and assigned serial number 0010790.
The Ford Authority Take
In recent months, The Blue Oval has filed quite a few patents pertaining to different kinds of lighting – both exterior and interior – that it may one day use on future Ford vehicles. That list includes ideas for a multi-purpose lighting system, a brightness management system, and an advanced interior lighting system, to name just a few. Now, this newly published patent keeps that trend going with another interesting idea, this time, for a new and brighter kind of lighting system that may be used in future Ford vehicles.
Even with advances in terms of lighting technology in recent years, many find vehicle interior lighting, specifically, to be a bit lacking in many cases. Most new vehicles simply can’t match the brightness that one’s home or office might provide, and several interior lamps also tend to be manually controlled by the user. As such, Ford sees a need for improvement, and this system aims to do that by using a closed-loop lighting setup that functions automatically and provides more light than a traditional system.
This way, future Ford vehicles could utilize entire rows of lighting along the interior portion of the roof, depending on the vehicle, which could provide much more light than current models do. However, the lighting would otherwise function much like what we’ve come to know over the years, automatically turning on and off as needed – presumably, shutting off a short period of time after the vehicle’s door is closed. There’s a lot of room for interpretation with this particular patient filing, but it certainly seems like Ford is at least exploring different ways to improve the lighting in its future models, regardless.
Comments
Lighting is a pet peeve of mine because it is so cheap and easy to improve and it makes a very dramatic improvement to the vehicle and, yet, interior lighting is bad across many vehicles. I replaced all the bulbs in an ’04 Toyota Sienna with LED bulbs. BAM! A night and day difference. Cost less than $20. I installed an LED strip from Walmart ($9) in the cargo area of a ’19 TourX. Again, dramatic difference. Having an LED lighting strip running the length of the roofline on both sides would light up the entire cabin. And why do cargo areas always get one measly little light? One box in the cargo area can block the light and then you have nothing. Why is interior lighting so bad?
Yes, interior lighting is an area that needs attention. That being said, this stupid patent idea (yet another one) goes too far. Can you imagine briefly turning on the interior lights for the missus to find her cell phone and be blinded out? At 80 miles per hour? Good one, and stupid.
Who is so stupid to think of turning on interior lights to search for a phone? Such searches must be done with the vehicle parked and powered off!