Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

John Michael Galan Ferrer

Victoria Leigh Schein

Jayanthi Rao

Leigh Gray Hagestad

Nitin Bandaru

Perry Robinson Macneille

Fling Finn Tseng

Clay Wesley Maranville

Johannes Geir Kristinsson

Taylor Hawley

Kenneth Edward Nietering

Cynthia Mowery Flanigan

Nithya Somanath

Joseph Wisniewski

Rick H Wykoff

Prashant Rao

Andre Aaron Melson

A computing device in a vehicle can determine an occupant type, location and orientation and determine intensity and direction of sunlight. The computing device can tint one or more portions of vehicle windows based on the occupant type, location and orientation and the strength and direction of sunlight.

Vehicle window tinting

A vehicle, hitch, and articulating trailer include vehicle to vehicle and infrastructure communications and vehicle computing systems, which have a controller coupled to and/or including one or more of a dynamics measurement unit, a transceiver, and a position sensor, among other components. The controller(s) are configured to, in response to detecting positions of trailer corners from the position sensor, generate vehicle and trailer relative orientation and navigation data including location, velocity, and orientation, utilizing vehicle and trailer electronic polyhedrons articulating about a hitch point and representing the combination vehicle and trailer predicted path and envelopes. In response to detected trailer movement relative to the hitch point, the generated articulated polyhedrons are generated with the navigation data, which includes the location, speed, and orientation, which are in turn communicated to nearby vehicles and roadway infrastructure. Initial trailer vertices may be generated with wireless and mobile devices to generate the trailer polyhedron.

Vehicle communication system for sharing real-time articulated vehicle positions

A system is disclosed that may comprise: one or more processors of a center node, wherein the center node is a vehicle computer; and memory of the center node, wherein the memory stores instructions executable by the one or more processors, the instructions comprising to: determine a first network comprising the center node and a plurality of member nodes based on a mesh network of the center node and the plurality of member nodes; add at least one virtual node to the first network; and using the first network, exchange cryptographic data between the at least one virtual node, the center node, and the plurality of member nodes.

Vehicle blockchain transactions

An indication of a physical location specified as a name of a geoshortcut is received. The name is identified as corresponds to the geoshortcut according to a format of the name matching a format of geoshortcut name identifiers. The name is sent, to a cloud server maintaining a geoshortcut service, in a request for geoshortcut information regarding the geoshortcut. The geoshortcut information regarding the geoshortcut is received from the cloud server responsive to the request, the geoshortcut information including data identifying the physical location in a native format as received, data identifying the physical location in a predefined location format available across geoshortcuts, and expiration data indicative of for how long the data identifying the physical location is deemed valid. The geoshortcut information is utilized to determine the physical location referenced by the name of the geoshortcut.

Geoshortcuts

An identified destination roadway lane from a plurality of roadway lanes that is separated from a current roadway lane of a vehicle by at least one roadway lane is received. Upon determining that a blind spot of the vehicle extending across the destination roadway lane and a roadway lane between the destination lane and a current roadway lane is free of objects, a means for providing an alert is actuated.

Blind spot object detection

Various expandable mirrors and a vehicle having the same are described. An expandable mirror may include a first pane having a first reflective surface and a second pane having a second reflective surface. The expandable mirror may also include a mechanism connected with each of the first and second panes. The mechanism may be actuated to expand a viewing area of the mirror such that the expanded viewing area includes both the first and second reflective surfaces. The expandable mirror may also include a third pane having a third reflective surface that contributes to the viewing area when the mirror is expanded. The expandable mirror may also include a manual button configured to actuate or de-actuate the mechanism when pressed. The expandable mirror may also include a positioning motor configured to adjust the orientation of the viewing area of the mirror.

Expandable mirrors

Example in-vehicle infotainment control systems and methods are described. In one implementation, a method receives a request from a mobile device to control an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system of a vehicle. The method determines whether a speed of the vehicle exceeds a threshold and whether the mobile device is operated by a passenger of the vehicle. If the vehicle's speed exceeds the threshold and the mobile device is operated by a passenger, the mobile device is allowed to control the IVI system.

Growing community of inventors

Carson, CA, United States of America

John Michael Galan Ferrer