Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) designed to mark off-road courses that may be used in future Ford vehicles, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on October 15th, 2023, published on April 17th, 2025, and assigned serial number 0123113.
The Ford Authority Take
Ford has filed quite a lot of patents centered around potential ways its future vehicles may utilize unmanned aerial vehicles in recent years – including ideas for a UAV integration system and a landing platform for those flying machines. A little over a year ago, Ford also published a patent for an obstacle detection system that would use satellites to guide off-roaders down trails, too. Now, those ideas are seemingly coming together with this newly published patent, which presents us with an idea for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) designed to mark off-road courses that may be used in future Ford vehicles.
The concept behind this patent is rather simple – Ford envisions using UAVs as a sort of guide for folks that are navigating off-road trails, which are sometimes unmapped and unfamiliar to those traversing them. The UAV would be able to gather information about a trail, identify course markers along that route, gather navigation instructions, and display them in the vehicle. On trails that lack physical course markers, such an idea could come in handy for certain, making it viable for use in future Ford vehicles – if it does wind up coming to fruition.
“Submitting patent applications is a normal part of any strong business as the process protects new ideas and helps us build a robust portfolio of intellectual property,” Ford said in a statement. “The ideas described within a patent application should not be viewed as an indication of our business or product plans. No matter what the patent application outlines, we will always put the customer first in the decision-making behind the development and marketing of new products and services.”
Comment
That first picture looks like an miniature RC car.