Ford has been taking some cues from Tesla lately — which has gotten shareholders excited. Some of those ideas have been great, like dramatically ramping up EV production. Others — gesture control to open doors with non-existent handles, what?! — may be less great. But one cool feature offered in Teslas that may soon get an analog from the Blue Oval seems sure to delight a giant chunk of America: pet owners.
USPTOTesla, in case you were unaware, offers a Dog Mode in its vehicles. Now, a Lightning Owners forum user (spotted by Autoblog) found a Ford patent for a similar Pet Mode. Vehicle owners would be able to activate the feature with the click of a button on a key fob or a message sent from a mobile device.
The Pet Mode would activate multiple vehicle systems to regulate the interior climate. The car would open a sunroof and/or windows, adjust the seat positions and turn on the climate controls if needed. The system would also disable the interior door and window control mechanisms to thwart particularly adept escape artists.
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The patent says the system could also be connected to some form of hydration system to provide the pet with water and play the pet’s preferred relaxing music. We presume there would be some form of screen graphic like Tesla’s system to assuage nosy passersby that the dog is being well cared for.
We don’t know whether Ford will ever implement the Pet Mode, let alone when or in which vehicles. But there don’t seem to be any overwhelming technical hurdles to doing so in the near term. And if highfalutin’ dog technology seems fancy for Ford, we’d remind you that the average Ford that left a lot in January cost just short of $50,000 — putting Ford a lot closer to Lexus than perceived rivals like Volkswagen and Honda.
