Ford has made a new invention to help people secure their cargo. It’s called the “bed-mounted cross member system” and it was recently approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office. This system uses U-shaped bars that can be placed inside beds on rails so they can slide back and forth depending on how much cargo you need to carry. That way, you’ll always have a tie-down point to secure your stuff!
When you press a button on your smartphone or other device, it will activate a radar sensor that can scan the load. After that, motors called “actuators” move the crossbar into position to help with tying down the load. Finally, the driver ties it up with the crossbar.
The crossbar can be used to get things into the bed. It’s attached with a cable that you can use to pull up whatever you want, and it will do it automatically by itself. Plus, you can also attach a winch, like a gantry-style one, to the crossbar and use it as well.
The pictures that come with the application show us a Ford F-150 pick-up truck bed. But there’s also an illustration of a totally different design – it looks kind of crazy and has headlights and taillights all around it. It would be cool if Ford would make this, but probably they just thought of this idea for fun and won’t actually do it.
Ford has plans to make a really cool truck with something called a crossbar system, but it’s not certain if they will actually build it. Patent applications don’t always mean that something will be made for real. Ford has wanted to put lots of special features on pickups like fold-flat seats and technology to help avoid crashing into trailers. It’s possible that one of these ideas might show up in an actual production vehicle in the near future.