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Ford Patents Trunk-Deploying Roadside Assistance Drone

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If you drive a Ford sometime in the future and get stranded en route to your destination, you might be able to enlist the help of the vehicle’s built-in drone instead of calling your insurance’s roadside assistance hotline. Per Car and Driver, the automaker has submitted a patent application for a unique type of emergency-service drone. The drone will provide more convenient emergency services to Ford drivers. 


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The age of the drone

Drones are becoming increasingly popular in the modern world. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, hobbyists will own 4.3 million drones by 2020. So, it’s not all that surprising that a major OEM like Ford would hop on the board the wagon of this new trend. 

The patent

According to the patent, the blueprint depicts a quadcopter-style device deploying from the trunk of what appears to be a Ford Fusion. The drone will be able to notify nearby emergency services of the vehicle’s location if it gets stranded. It will also have the capacity to follow behind the vehicle as it proceeds down the road. When not in use, the owner can store the drone in the vehicle’s trunk for safekeeping. 

Per Car and Driver, the drone is compatible across the Ford lineup as a whole, not just the Fusion model. This means that future SUV, crossover, and truck models might include one of these drones. 

Right now, it’s unclear if Ford itself will build the drone or outsource its production to a third-party company. Either way, though, the patent is definitely some exciting news for the industry, as mainstream automakers brainstorm ways to reinvent conventional roadside assistance methods


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News Sources: Car and Driver, Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office