The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 22, 2021
Filed:
May. 07, 2019
Applicant:
Ford Global Technologies, Llc, Dearborn, MI (US);
Inventors:
Luke Niewiadomski, Dearborn, MI (US);
Jacek Brauner, Plymouth, MI (US);
Mark Allen Lippman, New Baltimore, MI (US);
Lihui Chen, Rochester Hills, MI (US);
Assignee:
Ford Global Technologies, LLC, Dearborn, MI (US);
Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B60D 1/36 (2006.01); B60D 1/06 (2006.01); B60D 1/28 (2006.01); B60R 1/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
B60D 1/36 (2013.01); B60D 1/06 (2013.01); B60D 1/28 (2013.01); B60R 1/003 (2013.01); B60R 2300/105 (2013.01); B60R 2300/303 (2013.01); B60R 2300/808 (2013.01);
Abstract
A vehicle is provided with a trailer hitch, a camera oriented to capture images of the trailer hitch, and a controller processing the captured images, detecting a trailer coupler coupled to the trailer hitch, determining a locked or unlocked state of the hitch coupler by comparing the captured images to known trailer coupler images, and generating an output indicative of the determined state of the trailer coupler.