Back in 2017, Audi came up with this trick piece of software for its big-boy A8 sedan, where sensors along the side of the car could detect an incoming T-bone from either side. If the sensors detected an imminent impact, the computer would use the car’s active suspension to quickly raise that side’s body by two inches, so that the force of the impact would be absorbed mainly by the car’s side sills and floor pan, rather than the doors.
That tech debuted nearly a decade ago, but I still think about it pretty often. Using trick suspension tech not only to make the ride or handling better, but also to make a measurable difference in the survivability of a crash, is the type of clever engineering that warms my heart.
In a patent application published on Thursday, Ford is taking a similar approach to impact detection. But instead of using the suspension to mitigate injuries, it’s using deployable running boards often found on trucks.
Side Impact Detection Has Been A Thing
A T-bone-style crash is one of the scariest types of impacts I can think of. If I had the choice, I’d always rather take a frontal or rear impact instead, because at least in those scenarios, there’s a bunch of plastic and metal between me and the crash. In a T-bone crash, the only thing between me and the oncoming car is a door and whatever sort of safety equipment the manufacturer built in.
That’s why I’m a fan of Audi’s solution. It repositions the entire car in an attempt to direct the impact around and under the driver, so they don’t take a full-on hit. Watching the system work is mesmerizing, even all these years later. Here’s a video of the system in action:
Since its debut in the A8, this sort of tech has migrated elsewhere in the industry. Mercedes has a version of its own, but instead of raising just one side of the car, it raises all four corners. Here’s a clip of its system working:
In typical Mercedes fashion, the company goes one step further in a T-bone scenario with the system found on its S-Class sedan. In addition to raising the suspension to prepare for an impact, it also inflates the outermost air cushion inside the seat to push the driver farther away from the door, unlocking more space between them and the impact. Genius stuff.
Ford Is Using The Tech In An Entirely Different Way
Ford’s patent application, titled “Impact Detection With Deployable Body Panel,” was first filed all the way back in August 2024, but was only published today on the US Patent Office’s website. At its core, the idea consists of a sensor and a computer that work together to decide whether a vehicle—in the case of these patent drawings, an F-150 pickup truck—is about to be T-boned. But instead of raising the suspension to better direct the impact into the side sills, it deploys a running board or side step to act as the front line in a crash. From the application:
[A] computer includes a processor and memory storing instructions executable by the processor to: predict a potential certain impact to a vehicle; in response to prediction of the potential certain impact, move a deployable body panel of the vehicle from a stowed position to a deployed position.
Above are a couple of drawings that show the running board in its stowed and deployed positions. Note how in the deployed position, the side step is extended outside of the lines of the body, meaning it’d be the first thing an oncoming vehicle would touch in a T-bone-style crash.
But instead of using the running board to dissipate the energy of an impact, like Audi or Mercedes, Ford is using it as a detection device to better time the deployment of the vehicle’s airbags. While it might only be a few centimeters, having that much more time for the vehicle to react to an impact gives engineers a bunch of opportunities to make improvements. From the application:
The movement of the deployable body panel to the deployed position positions the deployable body panel for earlier detection of certain vehicle impacts. The deployable body panel moves relative to a body of the vehicle from the stowed position to the deployed position, and in the deployed position, the deployable body panel is positioned so that certain impacts with objects will occur at the deployable body panel prior to adjacent body panels of the vehicle, thus providing earlier detection of certain impacts.
Earlier detection of certain impacts allows for the vehicle to be equipped with occupant-restraint technology that uses the relatively earlier detection and/or allows for operation of occupant-restraint technology, e.g., an airbag, based on the relatively earlier detection. For example, the earlier detection provides the use of a relatively larger airbag for which inflation initiates prior to certain vehicle impacts with other body panels of the vehicle 10 based on detection of that impact at the deployable body panel. As another example, the size, shape, and or placement of the airbag may be based on the relatively early detection. The earlier detection may allow for dual-stage inflation of the airbag.
Above is the step-by-step process used by the computer to determine whether to actually deploy the airbags using the deployable running board sensors. Note the alternate pathway towards the bottom, where, if no actual impact is detected, the running boards are retracted back into their stowed position “to increase fuel economy of the vehicle,” according to the application.
This is really cool because, like Audi and Mercedes with their quick-acting suspension, it’s using existing technology and repurposing it to cleverly improve the safety of occupants. Ford is using the extended position of the running board to figure out if the vehicle is going to get hit sooner than if no running board were there. The side step is buying the computer precious milliseconds to activate airbags to better ensure the safety of the occupants.
This design isn’t foolproof, obviously. When I shared this application with the rest of The Autopian staff, my colleague Mercedes rightly pointed out that the running board is positioned pretty low on the side of the truck, meaning taller vehicles—like other pickup trucks—would simply avoid it altogether before striking the actual body. Still, I’d much rather have such a system on my truck than not. An imperfect impact mitigation system is far better than no impact mitigation at all.
Top graphic image: Ford / USPTO
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