Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Erik J Christen

Brendan F Diamond

Kevin James Rhodes

Pallav Sohoni

Chad Bednar

Shehan Haputhanthri

Prasad Venkiteswaran

Matthew Joseph

Mahmoud Abdelhamid

Yang Yang

Ray C Siciak

Matthew Fleming

Evan Perry

Joseph Giacchina

Derek Hartl

Maher Ghneim

Dale F Jordan, Iii

Jaswant-Jas S Dhillon

Jaswant S Dhillon

Gregory Kucab

Adriano Castelvetere

Harish Thiruvengadam

A system and method for a vehicle having a traction battery, an electric machine, and a secondary power source, such as an engine, operate the electric machine and secondary power source to sustain a state of charge (SOC) of the traction battery when the SOC is either: a) below a first threshold and above a second threshold; or b) below a third threshold; and to deplete the SOC of the traction battery when the SOC is between the second and the third thresholds in response to detecting an operating condition associated with high Amp-hour (Ah) throughput of the traction battery, such as towing a trailer. The system and method operate the electric machine and the secondary power source to deplete the SOC when the SOC is above the third threshold and sustain the SOC when the SOC is below the third threshold when the condition is not detected.

Electrified vehicle control during trailer towing

A controller selectively generates output for display indicative of a recommendation against use of a power outlet in a vehicle with devices external to the vehicle having a power rating greater than a predefined power rating threshold based on a difference between a current state of charge of a battery of the vehicle and a required state of charge for the battery.

Electric vehicle energy management system

The disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods for optimizing vehicle deployment. A software application is used to obtain information about a travel route. The information is used to evaluate an energy storage depletion characteristic of a battery that is used to operate a battery-operated vehicle and to determine whether the battery-operated vehicle can be deployed on the travel route. One of the factors that can affect the energy storage depletion characteristic of the battery is ambient temperature, because battery performance may be adversely affected by extreme temperatures. Consequently, a range of operation of the battery-operated vehicle may be impacted if the travel route has extreme ambient temperatures. If the evaluation indicates that the energy storage depletion characteristic of the battery is unsuitable for the travel route, another battery-operated vehicle with a better battery may be deployed on the travel route.

Systems and methods for optimizing vehicle deployment

Electric vehicle predictive range estimating systems and methods are provided herein. An example method includes determining an initial state of charge (SOC) for an energy source of a vehicle at a first point in time; determining one or more boundary conditions for the vehicle during a time frame extending from the first point in time to a second point in time, the one or more boundary conditions causing a loss in the energy source during the time frame; determining a predicted future SOC for the energy source based on the one or more boundary conditions and the initial SOC; and predicting an availability of a vehicle operating condition based on the predicted future SOC for the energy source.

Electric vehicle predictive range estimating systems and methods

A vehicle includes an electric machine that generates torque to move wheels of the vehicle, and a controller. The controller operates the electric machine to limit a maximum speed at which the vehicle is driven in reverse such that the maximum speed depends on a number of detected objects behind the vehicle.

Vehicle reverse drive mode

An emergency dispatch system may determine that an emergency vehicle has been dispatched to a predefined gated community, based on a dispatch address being within the gated community. The system may access a database to obtain a custom map pre-associated with the gated community. The system may also determine a path to an emergency location within the gated community, based on the custom map and send the path and the custom map to the vehicle, responsive to determining the path.

Emergency-responsive community and building infrastructure control

A system and a method are described for laying out components in a vehicle workspace. The method may comprise: receiving, as input, a plurality of components for a vehicle workspace; determining an optimization of a routing of a plurality of connections, each of which connect to at least one of the plurality of components; and providing an output indicative of the routing within the vehicle workspace.

Component layout optimization

Systems and methods are provided herein for adjusting vehicle features based on user preferences and physical dimensions. In some embodiments, the systems and methods described herein may more particularly relate to the automated adjustment of vehicle features such as, for example, seat positioning and mirror positioning, without requiring input from a user.

Systems and methods for smart cabin active ergonomics

A computer includes a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to predict damage to one or more components of a host vehicle and predict a hazard for a user of the host vehicle based on the predicted damage of at least one of the components disposed at the collision location. The computer predicts the damage based on an energy transfer between a target vehicle and the host vehicle. The energy transfer is based on a speed of a target vehicle, a mass of the target vehicle, a predicted contact area of a collision location of the host vehicle where the target vehicle is predicted to collide, and a deformation strength of material at the collision location.

Enhanced collision detection

Vehicle bus data is collected from an electronic control unit. User input is received to initiate creation of a vehicle health report for describing a vehicle diagnostic event. A voice message descriptive of a context of the diagnostic event is recorded. The telematics controller sends, to a sever, the vehicle health report including the voice message and a subset of the vehicle bus data including a time of the user input.

Method and system for sending vehicle health report

This disclosure describes vehicle systems and methods for providing active driver feedback during electrified vehicle operation. An exemplary method provides haptic feedback of a driving behavior through a smart device worn by a driver of the electrified vehicle during a braking or acceleration event of an electrified vehicle.

Systems and methods for providing active driver feedback during electrified vehicle operation

Methods and systems for managing mobile devices for connection with a vehicle are provided. A processor is configured to determine whether a mobile device is within a predetermined distance of the vehicle based on a comparison between the first geographical data of the mobile device and second geographical data of the vehicle. Responsive to determining that the mobile device is within the predetermined distances of the vehicle based on the comparison, the processor is configured to enable Bluetooth functionality on the mobile device.

Growing community of inventors

Royal Oak, MI, United States of America

Erik J Christen