The standard pickup truck mattress is little greater than a field with a tailgate, however Ford is envisioning one thing extra elaborate.

4 latest patent filings from the automaker present methods to make a pickup mattress reconfigurable by extending the size of each the mattress ground and partitions, and by including deployable ramps and steps for simpler entry.

The primary patent submitting titled “Extendable Cargo Mattress Ground” describes a system of movable ground sections that might permit the mattress ground to increase out previous the rear bumper of a pickup. The ground sections may fold up accordion-style and be stowed on the entrance of the mattress when not wanted, based on the doc, which additionally mentions a bit that slides straight out as a risk.

Patent picture of Ford extending cargo mattress ground with steps and cut up tailgate

The extendable mattress ground might be complemented by a split-opening tailgate, with the cut up within the center, Ford says within the doc. The 2 tailgate sections be angled parallel to the prolonged mattress ground to function bed-wall extensions. They might additionally open 180 levels to create a piece area, full with software hooks and auxiliary lights on the insides of the tailgate halves.

A second patent submitting titled “Extendable Cargo Mattress Ground and Cargo Mattress Aspect Partitions” applies the same idea to the mattress’s partitions as nicely. On this instance, the mattress ground nonetheless folds out in sections, however the rear part of the mattress additionally telescopes out. The inside mattress partitions lengthen, taking the taillights and tailgate with them.

Ford has additionally thought of including a deployable rear step, just like its present pickups, to the extendable mattress ground system. That is described in one more patent submitting, which claims these steps may fold up into one of many ground sections described within the earlier two filings. Ford at the moment hides fold-out steps within the tailgate, however opts to put them within the ground part right here to allow the split-folding tailgate design described within the first patent submitting.

Patent picture of Ford ramp system for extendable mattress ground

Lastly, a fourth patent submitting exhibits how a ramp system might be added to the prolonged mattress ground. On this case, the ramp would slide out from the rearmost part of the ground, stowing in that ground part when not wanted.

Automakers steadily patent concepts that do not make it to manufacturing, however the best way all the options described in these 4 patent functions had been designed to work collectively, it appears Ford engineers have a minimum of thought this via.