Ford Drone Patent May Create an Autonomous Driving Russian Doll

Ford vehicles may someday come with a new kind of autonomy. 

The company is seeking to patent “techniques for launching and landing a drone from the interior of a vehicle.” As the title suggests, Ford’s patent details ways to deploy an autonomous drone from an autonomous vehicle. 

“Due to the sensors they carry, maneuverability, range, versatility, and much more, drones are becoming more and more commonly integrated with existing vehicle systems for off-road activities, people monitoring, and much more,” Ford said in the filing. 

Ford noted that techniques for “drone-vehicle integration” typically involve exterior landing and deployment, and its tech offers a way to store and deploy the drone from the inside. In this scenario, the vehicle is equipped with an “interior sensor suite” and several potential exit points for an internally-docked drone’s departure. 

The system uses AI and machine learning algorithms for object classification, identifying where occupants and objects are within the car and tracking their movement. Then, when the drone is deployed, its exit path is calculated to avoid obstacles.

While the drone is deployed, it can be used as a scout, searching for obstructions, crashes, or traffic slowdowns. The vehicle and drone remain in communication “so that the vehicle’s performance under the autonomous driving mode is enhanced.” The vehicle may control the “acceleration, speed, position, route, etc. of the drone relative to the vehicle,” and could link back to the vehicle to provide raw video feed of its surroundings. 

Like the rest of the automotive industry, Ford has been hard at work on staking its claim in autonomous vehicles. The company previously sought to patent automated maintenance services for a fleet of self-driving vehicles. CEO Jim Farley also told Bloomberg TV last month that the company managed Level 3 autonomous driving, or partial autonomy, in testing. 

This also isn’t the first time we’ve seen Ford take an interest in drones. The company has had patents granted for drone docking on the exterior of vehicles, which would activate in the event of an emergency. A Ford subsidiary also is using the rehabilitated Detroit’s Michigan Central Station to test drone deliveries. 

Patents like this serve as a reminder that autonomous vehicles look like more than just cars themselves, especially as companies like Google, eBay, Amazon, and more research drones for their own use cases, whether it be last-mile delivery, emergency services, or maintenance. 

How drones may be put to use by Ford, however, is up in the air. After the shutdown of Argo AI, a Ford-backed self-driving startup, in 2022, the automaker established Latitude AI with more than 500 of the startup’s former employees in mid-2023. This venture, Ford noted at the time, would focus on bringing self-driving technology to personally-owned vehicles. 

However, if these turducken-esque autonomous vehicles have any ambition of hitting the open road, the company could face red tape on two fronts: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has already been busy trying to rein in autonomous vehicle firms for safety issues — Ford included – and the Federal Aviation Administration.