Drowsy Driving? Ford Designed A Way To Sleep Safely In Your Car While It’s Moving
Ford CEO Jim Farley has a vision for the company’s future self-driving cars.
“When I was at Toyota and I sold my Prius, that HOV sticker [which granted access to hybrids with just a driver on board] was worth $5,000,” Farley said at the Bernstein Conference in 2022.
“That only saved me five minutes a day on my commute. If we can get people to fall asleep in our car, give them 45 minutes back on their commute, they can go to work 45 minutes later, they can go home 45 minutes earlier, it won’t be $500. It’ll be tens of thousands of dollars.”
Dozing off behind the wheel is one thing, doing so comfortably and safely is another. But Ford has been thinking about that.
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The automaker has received a patent for an “Airbag Assembly for Reclined Vehicle Passengers” that addresses the challenge.
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The basic design features lie-flat seating that is equipped with straps that arch over a supine passenger and are attached to rails that allow them to be positioned over their and torso.
The straps house airbags, which deploy to hug the passenger in the event of an accident, and work in concert with additional airbags located along the sides and ends of the seat.
The patent description doesn’t detail exactly how the straps and airbags would hold the passenger in place without torpedoing laterally, but says that the system could be used in SUVs, trucks, vans, buses, sedans and even coupes. Coupes? Like those sports car beds the make for kids?
In 2022, Ford shut down its Argo AI division, which was working on Level 4 autonomous technology and is now focused on developing Level 3 autonomy. This potentially allows a vehicle to self-drive under certain circumstances, like on the highway, but isn’t really robust enough to let a driver go to sleep.
“We’re getting really close. We can do it now pretty regularly with a prototype,” Farley told Bloomberg in June. “Level 3 autonomy will allow you to go hands and eyes off the road on the highway in a couple years so then your car becomes like an office. You could do a conference call and all sorts of stuff.”
No timetable for the jump to Level 4, which would technically allow for sleeping, has been offered, so you’ll have to keep your alarm clock set for the regular time for now. In the meantime, it’s possible Ford could offer the recline passenger airbags for everyone in a car except for the driver, which wouldn’t save time, but would make for a quiet car.
