The again seat of a police automotive is not essentially the most comfy place to be, however Ford is taking a look at methods to no less than make the journey to reserving safer.

A Ford patent utility revealed by the USA 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 way in which typical entrance airbags deploy from a car’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 a regular a part of the conversion from civilian automobiles into police vehicles. Meaning Ford’s proposed resolution would not contain including police-specific elements except 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 fairly than the entrance. Ford has additionally filed two patent functions for roof-mounted airbags that will 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 actually 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 immediately’s Explorer-based Police Interceptor Utility.

Ford additionally sells a police model of the F-150, which earned the title of quickest police car 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 equipped Mustang Mach-E cop vehicles to the New York Police Division.