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Ford Aims to Hide Inspection Drones Inside Self-Driving Car Trunks

Autonomous cars are becoming more and more prevalent these days and as one might expect, there are some hiccups. One of the biggest is keeping an eye on the car’s condition while you’re out. Ford may have solved that by aiming to hide inspection drones inside self-driving car trunks.

Interior cameras, such as those installed in Tesla models, help ensure passengers aren’t damaging the cabin, but there’s nothing in place to help with detecting outside damage. According to Fox News, Ford patented a way to do it. Their idea is to hide an inspection drone inside the trunk of the car you can deploy between drives. The drone would fly around the vehicle and look around for any damage. In fact, the company aims to have the drone so compact it could also in theory fit in your glove compartment.

How it works is the car can automatically open the trunk for the drone to fly out and circle the vehicle. If it is stored in the glove compartment, the car can also lower one of the windows for it to escape. While circling, it takes pictures and sends them back to headquarters or uses artificial intelligence to recognize damage. If the latter occurs and the drone deems it necessary, it can summon immediate help.

It should be noted Ford officially stated it doesn’t currently plan to put the technology into production. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean the company won’t in the future. It could also serve as a foundation for future drone-related projects.

Ford Also Filed a Patent Regarding Manual Transmissions

Though I have driven an automatic car for more than a decade now, there’s nothing quite like driving one with a manual transmission. Seamlessly changing from one gear to another provides an odd kind of satisfaction you just don’t get with automatics. However, manual transmission cars as you remember could be a thing of the past thanks to another patent Ford filed.

Muscle Cars and Trucks reported the specifics, stating the patent involves an electric clutch system. It would allow drivers to shift gears manually without having to worry about working with a clutch. Sounds like an automatic car, right? It seems identical, but the system will be electronic and based on sensor inputs. After the driver grasps the lever to shift, the module would engage and disengage the clutch to properly shift for you.

As you might think, this means the car wouldn’t need a clutch pedal. For those of you like me who enjoy doing things the old-fashioned way, fear not. Ford stated vehicles could still include the clutch pedal. In this case, it would be connected to the control module instead of physically linked to the clutch master cylinder.

Everybody wins, right?