Pet Patent Pending

Ford do like to come up with interesting patents.

A couple of weeks ago, Fox reported on a Ford patent which involved using in-car drones to spy on autonomous hire-cars.  The idea is to hide an inspection drone in the boot or glove compartment that would be deployed between rides to get a look at the vehicle.

I'd be tempted to lock the glove box.

Today, Car+Driver are reporting that Ford will have a "Pet Mode" - this would be similar to the Tesla version I reported on back in January 2020.

The full patent application is here.

It seems to be controlled by the car key fob.  Surely a mobile phone app would be a better option - otherwise, given all the options available, it could end up looking like this:

The fob instructs a selected group of the systems under the control of the car computer to operate in a specified manner so as to create a comfortable environment for a pet within the vehicle.

"For example, in pet mode, the vehicle computer may cause one or more windows to lower, the sunroof to open the trunk lift gate to pivot open, and the seat backs of one or more rows of seats to tilt or fold down."

I wonder if it will check as to whether or not the pet is under that row of seats at the time.

Apparently it can also check whether or not the pet is inside or outside of the vehicle which is presumably quite useful just after the trunk lift gate has pivoted open.

You will have observed that the pet in question - item 106 in figure 5 - is a dog.  I can't think of any other pet that might be left in a car but they couldn't call it "Dog Mode" for two reasons:

1. Tesla have already got that one.
2. People in Britain would expect the car to take them to secluded car parks.

Going Logo

 Last week, Kia launched their new logo.  They used drones and fireworks and set a new record for something or other to do with drones or fireworks:

It doesn't look that good as a logo to me - although the old oval one was pretty nondescript so I suppose it is an improvement.

And it looks better in black than in firework.

Meanwhile, Autoguide today point out that GM have done the same - no fireworks or drones but they have done the new-logo thing:

Autoguide want us to discuss which of the new GM & Kia changes is the best - they say, "Which of these two redesigns do you think is more successful? Sound off in the comments."

Nobody has - I thought I was the only car-related author that nobody ever comments on.

You have to be careful with logos though - I used to deal with telecoms company ntl: who used this logo:

If you ignore the "n" and tip it on its end you get a pig on a skateboard.

If you tip the new GM one on its end, you get an elephant looking over a fence it is sat next to.

Droning On Even More

I had trouble believing the story I reported two weeks ago.

I have more trouble believing this Autocar one.

Maybe it's just a Halloween story designed to put the wind up us.

Literally.

It is another Uber drones story.  Except these ones are big enough to carry people around. Full marks to their marketing department for all this coverage.

But it couldn't actually happen could it?

Then again - Uber does mean "above".

Droning On

I'm not sure I believe this story from Car+Driver.

It comes with this picture:

And it is reported by several sites so I'm going with it's true.

Apparently Uber (the taxi people) are using Drones in Mexico to display messages to drivers stuck in traffic jams.  The one in this picture translates to, "The city is for you, not for 5.5 million cars."

They seem to be nagging messages - I'd have gone with one of the following:

• money generating advertising messages like "Cheap power tools at Home Depot - this week only"
• pro-Uber messages like "Share an Uber to cut down on the number of cars here"
• useful messages like "This tailback lasts for 2km and is due to an idiot driving into a lamp-post"

It doesn't say who creates the messages or where the drones take off from.  Do Uber drivers carry a drone, a piece of card and a marker pen with them?

Local take-aways could use them to get food orders, deliver the food and take the money - if you're stuck in a jam, you don't want to go hungry now, do you?

Or, if you're just bored in the jam, you could always do some shopping: