Ford Motor Company hardly seems like the kind of manufacturing firm that would take an interest in unnamed aerial vehicles, or UAVs.  But with drones sweeping across America’s industrial landscape, to say nothing of its airspaces, no company can afford not to consider how its production or sales might be affected by UAVs.

Ford, it seems, took an early interest in drones.  Back in 2015, when the industry was still in its infancy, the company’s R&D department looked into ways that UAVs might be launched from the trunks of its vehicles, mainly to alert car towing and roadside repair services in the event of an accident or breakdown.  Ford then dropped the idea, and little has been heard from the company about its potential interest in drones ever since.

Until last week.

Ford, it seems, has just filed a patent for the development of a specialty drone designed to jump start cars that have lost their battery power and been left stranded, especially in remote rural areas far from a Triple-A or a nearby tow truck company.

Apparently, Ford hasn’t yet designed a UAV with this capability, let alone field tested one.  But as part of its recent filing, the company did include design drawings of an expected prototype.  There’s nothing like it currently on the market.

How would Ford’s proposed system work?  Rather simply, in fact.  A stranded driver with a dead battery would put in a request for a jump start, through a hotline, and with the help of GPS, the alerted drone then pinpoint the vehicle’s location, fly to it, and connect itself to the vehicle’s battery for a quick charge.  And it would all happen automatically – in less than an hour.

Ford’s drone would be equipped to identify the type of battery in the vehicle and the precise location of its charge points.  It would also be able to attach charger cables, either with the assistance of the driver, or in more advanced applications, completely autonomously.  In a matter of minutes the stranded vehicle would be back on the road, and the drone would return automatically to its launch and storage location.

The idea sounds fanciful  to some and indeed, may well have been at the time Ford first conceived it.  But since then, “drone in a box” technology has made it possible for drones to conduct pre-programmed operations from start to finish without human intervention.  And drones now come equipped with sophisticated “gripper” tools that can cut and saw branches, cultivate fruit, wash skyscraper windows and even hammer nails.  In fact, some of the most advanced drone tools can perform these tasks completely autonomously, guiding and adjusting their movements using AI-enhanced sensors.

Could Ford’s next-generation drone pop a car hood and connect and test jumper cables on its own?  With the right design, it almost certainly could, in fact.

It turns out that Ford’s jump-start drone is only the beginning.  The company’s  also seeking a second patent for a drone that can help vehicle owners find their missing car in a parking lot, and a third patent for a drone that can deploy from a car trunk to record the vehicle as it drives or to film the road ahead.  In the event of an accident, the same drone could hover over the car at night with a bright light to alert first-responders to its location.

Ford’s also developed an interest in the burgeoning remote package delivery market.  In recent years,  the company has partnered with Drone Delivery Canada to test a drone that can land on a moving car at varying speeds.  While details of the collaboration remain closely held, it could be that Ford and DDC are looking for ways to expedite “last mile” deliveries with a more seamless hand-off between air and road vehicles, which could reduce their operational costs substantially.

What’s next, the development of a Ford airborne passenger vehicle – a “flying Ford”?  At this rate, it may be only a matter of time.

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