Ford spends billions a year on engineering, research and development. That spending yields products like the popular, all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck.
Courtesy of Ford
Dead battery? Not a member of AAA?
Ford Motor
has a unique solution to that problem and one that illustrates how car companies are adapting improving technology to improve drivers’ lives.
Ford (ticker: F) was issued a patent earlier this week for a “system including a computer programmed to actuate a plurality of drones to first establish one or more electrical connections there between and then to provide a jump start to a vehicle.”
Ford can jump a dead battery with a drone.
The system might make more sense for a traditional car than an electric vehicle. And Ford is all in on EVs with plans to sell roughly a million in 2026. Still, perhaps Ford could adapt it to provide a little juice for EVs that run out of power between charging stations. Ford didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Investors can decide if the drone patent matters or if it’s more useful, or cooler, than the
Tesla
(TSLA) patent for “pulsed laser cleaning of debris accumulated on glass articles in vehicles and photovoltaic assemblies.”
Tesla has a patent on laser windshield wipers. That patent was issued in 2021.
Lasers and drones. Auto makers aren’t veering off into odd directions. Tesla has a solar roof business so cleaning panels automatically could have wide applications. And every car has wipers.
Auto makers have dozens of patents.
General Motors
(GM), for instance, has a patent for a delivery system using autonomous vehicles. GM owns self-driving car company Cruise and delivering packages is a natural extension of that business.
Most patents are for things investors might expect. They cover things such as thermal management systems for EV batteries and object recognition for driver-assistance features.
“We submit patents on new inventions as a normal course of business,” a Ford spokesperson told Barron’s in an emailed statement. “But they aren’t necessarily an indication of new business or product plans.”
Generating inventions and patents are part of the companies’ R&D efforts. GM and Ford reported $9.8 billion and $7.8 billion in engineering, design, research and development spending in 2022, respectively. Tesla reports an R&D number; it spent $3.1 billion in 2022.
That spending is just a cost of doing business. Hopefully, it can yield a killer application such as drone recharging or laser cleaning of cars that become an industry standard.
Ford stock gained 2.5% Friday. The
S&P 500
and
Dow Jones Industrial Average
rose 1.4% and 1.3%, respectively.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
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