Ford CEO Mark Fields placing the license plate on the Fusion Hybrid autonomous vehicle.
Ford Motor Company today said that it submitted nearly 6,000 patent applications in 2015, many related to autonomous and connected vehicles. This is an increase of 36% from 2014. Hundreds of Ford employees are responsible for the work. In three years, employees in Asia Pacific increased invention submissions more than 140%, North America is up ~100% and Europe saw an increase of more than 50%.
Patent applications do not necessarily mean that innovation is coming to reality. Moreover, innovations can fail in the marketplace, as demonstrated by the My Ford Touch disaster or Th!nk (sic). Competitive actions and first movers – err, ‘think’ Toyota hybrid and fuel cell technologies – can mean that new ideas however closely followed mean only the same market share and profitability for some companies. Worse, innovation can be expensive, sapping profitability at already low-margin automakers. (Ford Investing $4.5 Billion in Electric Vehicles)
Ford is exploring connected vehicles, wearable devices, eBikes, navigation, ride-sharing platforms, cloud computing and other technologies. A new bike system, for example, can detect bike lanes and alert cyclists of path deviations. Another one would suggest a safe vehicle speed based on nearby infrastructure, average vehicle speed and GPS data, and a new front brake light technology would improve vehicle-to-vehicle and autonomous driving-to-pedestrian communication.
Ford has 275 U.S. patents on EcoBoost, with another 200 pending. Ford has more U.S. patents on gasoline turbocharged direct-injection – EcoBoost – technology than any other automaker today.
