A number of latest Ford patent filings reimagine pickup truck interiors.

In latest months, Ford has filed a minimum of 9 patent functions with the US Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) protecting a variety of options, together with swiveling seats, a retractable steering column, and a fold-out work station that would permit truck cabs to be reconfigured right into a hangout or work area whereas stationary.

A number of of the patent functions take care of reconfigurable seats. Among the many concepts introduced are rear seats that swivel to face a fold-out desk mounted to the again wall of a crew cab, and ottomans that come out of the backs of the entrance seats, a characteristic that is extra luxurious automobile than pickup truck.

Ford reconfigurable seating patent picture

A retractable steering column is described in a separate patent utility. It could telescope inward when not in use to assist release more room.

One other patent utility describes a fold-out work station for car interiors. In accordance with the appliance, the flat work floor could be connected to the underside of a seat and deploy when wanted. The seat would additionally pivot sideways, so the individual utilizing the work floor would face one of many aspect home windows. This seems to be a variation on the movable in-vehicle desk patent from Ford that surfaced earlier this 12 months.

The concepts aren’t restricted to the cab. One other patent utility discusses fold-out seats for the mattress. They’d deploy from the mattress sides, a bit like soar seats, in line with the appliance. In all of those functions, Ford particularly labels the assorted seating configurations mentioned as for stationary use solely. The Subaru Brat was a car-like pickup with rear-facing mattress seats within the late Nineteen Seventies.

Ford in-bed seating patent picture

Patented concepts do not all the time attain manufacturing, however Ford does appear involved in extra versatile truck interiors. The automaker already affords fold-flat seats and a folding shifter that turns the middle console right into a flat work area within the F-150. It additionally filed patents for a dashboard desk and lay-down entrance seats. We’re noticing a theme right here.

As for the place these options may be used, a lot of the patent functions embody drawings of a truck with a cab-forward design with minimal area forward of the windshield, just like the photographs Ford has utilized in displays about its electrical truck plans.

Ford plans to launch a brand new electrical pickup codenamed T3 in 2025. Each the T3 and a coming three-row electrical SUV are designed as EVs from the bottom up. Ford CEO Jim Farley referred to as the T3 the “Millennium Falcon” of vans. That would appear to go away room for some novel inside options.