Ford aims to make cop cars safer for perps

The again seat of a police automotive is not probably the most snug place to be, however Ford is methods to at the least make the journey to reserving safer.

A Ford patent utility printed by the US Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) on Nov. 16 (and initially filed in 2022), describes an airbag system for the rear seats of police vehicles. Airbags would deploy from the bulkhead that separates the rear a part of the cabin from the entrance, not in contrast to the best way standard entrance airbags deploy from a automobile’s steering wheel and dashboard.

Ford police automotive airbag patent picture

Partitions separating the cops within the entrance seats from the detainees within the rear seats are an ordinary a part of the conversion from civilian autos into police vehicles. Which means Ford’s proposed resolution would not contain including police-specific parts until vehicles are literally destined for law-enforcement responsibility.

New vehicles have already got airbags to guard rear-seat occupants, however they deploy from the perimeters quite than the entrance. Ford has additionally filed two patent functions for roof-mounted airbags that may drop down in entrance of rear-seat occupants, or doubtlessly even encompass them, however the firm hasn’t given any indication of manufacturing plans.

Ford police automotive airbag patent picture

It is also unclear if Ford’s police automotive airbag will attain manufacturing, however it might definitely slot in with the automaker’s brisk cop-car enterprise. The Ford Crown Victoria was as soon as the default U.S. police automotive, and Ford has managed to keep up a lot of that enterprise with at this time’s Explorer-based Police Interceptor Utility.

Ford additionally sells a police model of the F-150, which earned the title of quickest police automobile in a 2021 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division (LASD) check with a 0-60 mph time of 5.9 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 14.44 seconds at 98.19 mph. Ford has additionally provided Mustang Mach-E cop vehicles to the New York Police Division.