Jeep Patents Drone System as Off-road Assistant

Jeep is looking at ways to integrate drones with vehicles, as recent patent applications show.

One of the applications that Jeep may be seeking to patent is off-road spotting.1 Jeep proposes to deploy a drone from an in-vehicle docking station instead of a person getting out of the car to survey the terrain ahead and direct the driver over the appropriate line through obstacles.

When a drone is deployed, it can fly in front of the vehicle to establish a data link and send images directly to the vehicle's dashboard display to guide the driver.According to the patent application.

The second patent application goes into a little more detail on the docking station for drones. It would probably be placed inside the vehicle as part of a storage bin in the center console, the document suggests.

A third patent application describes alternative use for the drone itself, possibly through an open sunroof to charge the drone and transmit signals that allow the drone to undock and jump out of the vehicle. Drones could act as security escorts for vehicle occupants instead of reconnaissance ahead of obstacles. The same docking station and drone-to-vehicle data links can also be used here, but in this case the drone tracks when the driver or passenger leaves or returns from the car.

Jeep is not the first automaker to come up with the idea of combining drones with off-road. Both Rivian and General Motors have filed patent applications for drone scouting systems similar to Jeep, but neither application has discussed using drones as aerial sentry.