Do you often fear that your new Mustang Mach-E will get hit by a rogue shopping cart while you’re inside Costco, chowing down on organic microwavable spring roll samples? You may be in luck. Ford recently published a patent (number US-12617393-В2), originally found by Road & Track, for a “System for detecting moving objects,” and it would allow a car to move itself, to either avoid a moving object or at least reduce the probability of impact. While it’s just a patent for now, and car companies patent weird tech that never gets made all the time, this is a good idea and could help many Ford owners rest easier.
Ford originally filed for this patent back in 2023, so it’s been thinking about autonomous impact dodging for a while. And it won’t take any radical new hardware to make, so it’s entirely possible that Ford actually puts this tech into production. The system uses sensors that monitor potential impacts around the car, and if it finds any, the car can try to move out of the way. Given that Ford already uses a myriad of sensors in many of its cars to surveil their surroundings while using its Level 2 hands-free Blue Cruise system, it stands to reason that the company currently has the tech to make this happen.
How does it work?
In practice, it seems like a pretty simple system. Of course, the technical bits are complicated enough to fry my little brain, but from the outside it seems simple enough. The car will use its array of sensors to track the trajectories of objects around it. If it senses that something will hit it, like another car, a shopping cart, or a drunken street sweeper, the car will let out a visual and audible warning by flashing its lights and hitting the horn. If the warning doesn’t change the object’s trajectory and impact seems certain, the car will try to move and reduce the likeliness of a crash. It will also always be aware of the stationary objects around it, like other parked cars, barriers, structures, or pillars, so it’ll know if it has room to maneuver.
In theory, this seems like a good idea, as it could prevent a ton of minor crashes and impacts, or at least lessen them. The big question is whether autonomous car regulations will eventually allow Ford to let its cars move on their own without a driver on board. I feel like that’s the biggest hurdle, as the technical part seems doable with tech that Ford already has. Although, I could also see people “scaring” other peoples’ Fords by approaching them with shopping carts or bicycles until they move, just for laughs.
