A brand new Ford patent submitting detailing an elaborate reconfigurable seating system has surfaced.
Printed by america Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) on Feb. 13, and initially filed on March 21, 2022, the applying facilities on seats with fold-out parts constructed into their backs. This enables seats to be configured as ahead or backward-facing with out bodily shifting them.
Ford reconfigurable seating patent picture
In a single configuration described within the utility, the entrance seats may very well be moved ahead and fold-out backside sections deployed, permitting front-seat occupants to sit down dealing with these within the second row. In three-row automobiles, the second row might in flip be configured so occupants sit dealing with towards the again, with the third row transformed right into a desk, one drawing included within the utility exhibits.
A few of these seating preparations is probably not allowed below present rules, Ford admits within the utility. However the automaker believes that “know-how and the regulatory framework might evolve sooner or later to the place such exercise is secure and permissible.”
Ford reconfigurable seating patent picture
The seating system described right here differs a bit from the Ford patent purposes revealed by the USPTO in late 2023. These additionally mentioned seats that may very well be reconfigured to permit front-seat passengers to sit down dealing with backward, however concerned pivoting and sliding the seats to maneuver them into totally different positions. Ford has additionally submitted patent purposes for a retracting steering wheel and an in-cab work station, however the latter appears aimed extra at pickup vans than the three-row SUV hinted at on this newest utility.
Ford plans to launch a brand new electrical pickup truck codenamed T3 and a three-row SUV by-product of that mannequin in 2025. Reconfigurable seating would doubtless be a very good match for the SUV, which Ford has mentioned will intention for 350 miles of vary. Ford has additionally trademarked the Lightstream identify, maybe to be used on the T3 pickup or SUV.