It admittedly isn’t the kind of invention marking a radical departure from its previous drone-related innovations, but a recently published US patent application by the Ford Motor Co. does offer additional evidence the automotive giant is intent on integrating UAVs into its future cars and trucks.
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As reported in past posted, the Ford Motor Co. is busy working on ways to integrate drones for use with its cars, trucks, and vans, with a newly published patent indicating how the automotive giant is looking to facilitate delivery craft landing on moving vehicles.
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Drones are being used to inspect structures, deliver lunches, shuttle transplant organs, rush defibrillators to cardiac victims, and capture incredible first-person footage to thrill and entertain. Now the Ford Motor Company is looking to expand that list of UAV applications by cutting the waiting time for drivers with flat car batteries needing a jump start.
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A US patent filing by Ford Motor Co. published this month provides details on a system the automotive giant is developing to permit secure drone flights over public roads.
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Ford has patented a drone that can fly directly from the vehicle to perform security and emergency aid functions. The drone is a quadcopter design and can be programmed and customized.
Drone inspections are nothing new, but Ford Motor Company is doing things differently than the rest. Drone flight is typically conducted outdoors where pilots have much more room to maneuver around structures taking various images. Employees at Ford instead are flying drones inside of their plant to keep workers safe.
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In a blog post, Ford announced that they are seriously looking into drones as an addition to their product portfolio. The post covers two concepts: using the anti-collision lights of drones for identification purposes which we covered here, and a customizable UAV development platform. We will look into the second one in more detail in this post.
Ford is the third car manufacturer this week to make news in the drone industry. First, we had Porsche and Audi who both announced to be working on passenger or taxi-drones. Now it is Ford’s turn. As unlikely as it may seem the American car company was one of the panelists during the FAA Symposium in Baltimore. Apparently, Ford has been working with the FAA to create a remote tracking and identification system for drones, based on the anti-collision LED lights that you find on most unmanned aerial vehicles.
