Ford at the moment affords a zone lighting system that permits drivers to show exterior lights on and off remotely utilizing an app. But it surely appears Ford engineers are fascinated about tweaking this technique.

Right now’s zone-lighting system repurposes different lighting parts, just like the headlights and taillights. In a patent software revealed by america Patent and Trademark Workplace on Sept. 5 (and initially filed in 2022), Ford discusses utilizing devoted roof-mounted lights as a substitute.

As described within the software, lighting parts can be sandwiched between the roof panel and the tops of the doorways, windshield, and rear window. This would supply a hoop of lights across the car’s roof—with a number of doable makes use of.

In response to Ford, these lights “might doubtlessly meet necessities for daytime working lamps,” however may be illuminated at a decrease depth in autonomous automobiles, which would want the lights to be seen by drivers and pedestrians, however would not essentially want the added illumination to “see” the highway forward.

Ford roof-mounted lighting system patent picture

Completely different patterns may be used to convey data. In an EV or plug-in hybrid, lights might blink whereas the car is charging and keep illuminated when charging is full, based on Ford. It is a extra elaborate model of the charging-indicator lights that may already be discovered on the dashboards of some EVs.

Different potentialities embrace gentle pulses triggered when the driving force walks up with the important thing fob, or yellow blinking that mirrors a car’s hazard lights.

As with all patent functions, there is no such thing as a assure that this lighting system will attain manufacturing. But it surely may be a bit simpler to combine into future automobiles than a few of Ford’s different current patents, together with an extendable cargo mattress for pickup vehicles.