NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES – 2019/04/17: Rivian R1S seen at the New York International Auto Show at … [+]
As it’s been raking in oodles of cash investments from major companies ($350 million from Cox Automotive, $700 million from Amazon and $500 million from Ford in 2019), it has also been working on getting the technology in its upcoming electric trucks and SUVs right. To that end, the company has been filing patent applications with the U.S. Patent Office for a few new designs that I think are worth checking out.
Take, for example, application number 15/952002, which describes new ways for a user (née driver) to control an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle. Rivian says that since these kinds of vehicles are becoming more prevalent, and because “autonomous or semi-autonomous features can be dangerous if used incorrectly,” it makes sense that automakers design new ways to control them.” After all, “a feature that allows a vehicle to be autonomously driven on a highway may be dangerous if used on a non-highway road,” the company said in the patent application.
Rivian’s solution is to have the car identify who the user is and then, once the car determines if the driver is qualified to activate the feature or not, it then either activates (or not) that self-driving feature.
A second recent application (Number 15/963176) talks about a special type of seat, the kind that, from the images included with the application, look more like something found in a concept car than a production vehicle.
Rivian seat patent filing image from the USPTO.
The reason for the unusual design is because the seat is not meant for daily driving but for first responders who would be using a Rivian vehicle to get to the scene. Standard seats can interfere with all of the gear that those people are likely to be wearing, and this design could make it that little bit easier for them to get in and out of their seats when they’re equipped and ready. As the patent application says:
“Conventional automotive seats typically include side portions both in the seat bottom and seat back that protrude relative to the main seating surfaces. … The present inventors have observed that such conventional seating may be unduly constraining for first responders, such as law enforcement personnel, given the variety of gear that may be worn on the body of such a first responder, and the variety of gear that may occupy the front seat region of a first responder vehicle.”
Whether or not Rivian EVs ever get used by police officers or firefighters remains to be seen, but if they are, they could be designed just right for them.
