Is the motorcycle-in-car concept from Ford really become reality?
This is one of those stories you’ll probably won’t believe or, if you really like Batman, you’ll just think it’s something that came out of the Batman movies and is just fiction – remember the Batpod?
According to the United States Patent Office, Ford filed a patent for a car with an integrated motorcycle!
The motorcycle is integrated in the middle of the car, it’s electric and fully autonomous, so the driver of the car can park it outside the city and deploy the motorcycle to ride around escaping traffic. In the end he just needs to take the bike back to the car, fit the bike in the front end of the car, and drive away.
The car has a mechanism to fix the motorcycle inside, and part of the bike will function as the car central console when attached. The car itself uses a combustion engine, and according to sketches it should be placed in the back of the car.
Notice how the motorcycle fits right in the middle of the car
According to the patent, the “multimodal passenger transportation apparatus” gets its inspiration from the problems people are having to move within big cities.
Ford explains in the patent that this motorcycle-in-car vehicle can be a solution for the limited available parking spaces in urban areas, or in areas where internal combustion engines may be restricted. Something that many Governments are now applying to fight pollution.
The fact that the USPO showed these sketches to the public doesn’t mean that Ford is actually developing this radical concept or that the Patents Office decided to grant the patent to Ford.
What probably happened was that some Ford designers came up with this idea, so Ford filed the patent only to protect themselves in the future. And the fact that the United States Patent Office published these sketches it’s nothing special too, because the USPO publishes all applications after 18 months they’ve been submitted.
There’s a hatch in the middle where the motorcycle fits in
Nevertheless, Ford released last week its first quarter 2018 financial results, and on them there’s an update on the “strategic framework” for the future. Two of the elements inserted on that strategic framework are the development of autonomous technology and “scaling a mobility platform”.
So, perhaps Ford is really thinking on developing this motorcycle-in-car concept!