Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Jessica Smith

Stuart C Salter

Pietro Buttolo

James Stewart Rankin, Ii

David Celinske

Harry Lobo

Dipanjan Ghosh

Kassandra Hibala Ritter

Brendan F Diamond

Todd Ansbacher

Noah Barlow Mass

Jim Antime Marleau, Jr

Leann Kridner

Richard E Newton

Rudi Todd Ansbacher

Justin Richard Longbourne

Roxanne Anthonette Pinheiro

Yaowei Kang

A power management system for a vehicle includes a power source, switching circuitry, and a first converter electrically interposing the power source and the switching circuitry. The first converter has a first power output threshold. A second converter electrically interposes the power source and the switching circuitry. The second converter has a second power output threshold lower than the first power output threshold. Control circuitry is configured to, in response to a key-off state of the vehicle, control the switching circuitry to supply power to at least one load, compare the power drawn from the second converter by the at least one load to the second power output threshold, and communicate an output to limit the power drawn from the second converter by the at least one load in response to the comparison.

Power distribution management for a vehicle

A depletion amount of energy required to charge a user device connected to a device port of a vehicle is estimated based on a state of charge (SoC) of a device battery of the connected user device. Responsive to an expected SoC of a LV battery of the vehicle after providing the depletion amount of energy exceeding a calibrated threshold amount of energy of the LV battery, the connected user device is charged during key off. Otherwise, an engine start/stop schedule defining a time to start an engine of the vehicle and a duration of run time for the engine is utilized to generate additional energy to charge the connected user device to ensure the LV battery remains above the calibrated threshold amount of energy.

User device vehicle charger strategy

A proximity sensing system may include a conductive first trace and a conductive second trace adjacent to, interleaved with, and electrically isolated from the first trace. A density of the traces varies along a first axis such that rates of change of capacitance between the traces associated with movement, through an electric field, of an object in a direction of the first axis at a constant velocity are indicative of the direction. The sensing system may further include a conductive third trace adjacent to, interleaved with, and electrically isolated from the first trace. A first area between the first trace and second trace is independent of and isolated from a second area between the first trace and the third trace. Also, a density of the first and third traces may vary along the first axis.

Motion based capacitive sensor system

A keypad having a plurality of switches identifies a numerical value according to user input to the plurality of switches. The numerical value may be computed as a total count of the plurality of switches that are swiped across in a consistent direction or may be computed as a total count of the plurality of switches that are simultaneously pressed. The keypad may further send the numerical value to a controller configured to facilitate access to vehicle unlock functionality.

Simultaneous button press secure keypad code entry

According to one or more embodiments, a polymeric article includes a polymeric composition which in turn includes a volume of polymer intermixed with a number of color balloons, at least a portion of the number of color balloons each including a shell enclosing a colored agent.

Polymeric composition with intermixed color balloons

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Roseville, MI, United States of America

Jessica Smith